


Back to the Beginning

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Slice of Life, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-25 22:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21363370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: One is marked by the Son, the other by the Daughter. Together, can they undo all that was done, and build a better way?
Comments: 243
Kudos: 452





	1. The End is the Beginning

_The Sith rose, and the Sith fell, but the cycle had existed too long to be broken so easily. A galaxy torn and bleeding at the edges, still raw from losing so many of xir children cried in anguish even as triumph swept the short lives within._

_The Force answered that cry, having prepared for the moment by removing one key piece from the board._

* * *

She knew the moment he chose to protect, rather than destroy. She felt it as he cast off his chains, and made one last, true choice to save his son. She knew, without seeing, that Anakin Skywalker had triumphed in that moment.

Fulcrum, though, felt there was more to do. Darth Sidious's evil was too well-entrenched. He had built an Empire on the backs of those who would now strive to keep that power. The galaxy would pay the price, and it would be Anakin's children, she could see, that would both lead the charge and pay the heaviest tolls.

She reached, this woman who was both Ahsoka Tano and the embodiment of the Light Side of the Force. She held out her ethereal net, and ensnared the one that was meant to be her counter, the one that had trained her and also been marked by the Dark Side's avatar.

As Anakin Skywalker breathed his last breath, Fulcrum pulled the destruction from all around him, channeling it through the vestige of the Son that he possessed, and brought Anakin back to her side, whole and as he had been before the Fall.

Nor was that the only twisting she did, fueled by the birth of hope that exploded outward from a forest moon of Endor. With all her will, before Anakin could take stock of it all, Fulcrum took them back to the beginning.

* * *

~Think of it. You and I. No Father. Just Us, proving We can.~

~I could just use him to control it all!~

~How often has that worked for You, Brother?~

The long silence said much, before He graced Her words with an answer. 

~You swear, Dear Sister, to not tip it all the way to Your way?~

~I swear to match You, Dear Brother.~

Another telling pause, and She knew He was weighing all the ways that He had chafed as Sidious kept Him in check by thwarting Vader.

~From this point, to the one You took Us from, We work for Balance. After….~

They did not need to say what came then. They knew that neither of Them could hold to Balance for long.

* * *

Fulcrum, once more the primary occupant of her own physical form, slowly pushed to sitting, putting her back against a wall that thrummed with the power of the Force infusing it. She closed her eyes, still seeing afterimages of the torn history they had come back through. Still, Anakin was here, and that meant it had to have worked. 

She wasn't certain -- 

\-- no, she was. They were in one of the Temple's towers, the one that had been damaged and off-limits during her childhood. After opening her eyes again, she had recognized the mural on the wall, though it was cleaner than she recalled. Maybe the breach on the outer wall hadn't happened yet, so nothing had yet caused this one to fall into disuse?

"Are you with me yet?" Ahsoka asked, omitting any name at this point, just in case his psyche was too raw from whatever had happened.

"Wh... what?" he asked, feeling on hearing a voice he loved so much, so deeply. Impossible voice, impossible... everything. He was dead, he knew he was, he'd told Luke -- Luke, his son, free child that had with nothing but that impossible undeserved love freed _him_ again -- to go, to escape. His too-broken body had failed, he'd felt... his Master, even the ancient one, in the Force as he joined them, and then... 

Snips' voice? Rich and mature, not a child any more, voice that had called out to him, had tried to pull him up from the depths of Vader's -- but wasn't he Vader? No... he was Anakin. 'It is the name of your true self, you've only forgotten' oh, his son had been right. 

But... he could feel his heart beating? His lungs -- his own lungs -- working? 

"Going to take that as a not really," Ahsoka said, letting her smile filter into her words before she moved closer to him, resting a hand on his hair. "Hello, Master." 

She opened herself to the bond, let her love for him, her pride in his final choice all seep through quietly, reminding him that he was not alone, and that she did care, deeply even.

The feeling of her love and pride pouring into him, her hand in his hair -- Hair? What? He hadn't had hair in... decades -- and the gentle tone of her voice were baffling, impossible, but... real. Or else he was in an incredibly vivid hallucination. He risked opening one eye, slightly... and there was no red filter covering everything, but the light didn't stab his eyes, either. Color, he could see all the colors of her montrals and lekku and skin, really see them. "I... Snips? What? I -- died, didn't I?" 

"Yes." Ahsoka let her fingers play with the texture of his hair. It was a luxury she hadn't had even before she had chosen to remain in the Way Between Worlds. After all, Rex -- 

\-- her breath hitched as she realized that she had abandoned him to the timeline, left him alone yet again, and truly marched far away from him. 

She had to put that down deep, hidden within the core of who she was. She had a chance to let Rex have a proper life, one surrounded by his vod'e.

"The Force has agreed to allow us a chance to fix the mess we made the first go around."

"...there's got to be a way that makes sense," he said for the first time, realizing his voice wasn't rasping, wasn't old and pained, "but... _haran_ if I can get there. Snips... I died. And now I'm -- I'm not -- 

"I can breathe. I don't. I'm not in pain?" 

He was almost certain of that, but then again, he couldn't remember what it was like, either. But probably something like this. He looked down, and -- he had shins, and feet. He turned his head -- and it turned. 

His chest seized up, suddenly, as those realizations cut through him. Worse than that, worse than the hammering of his heart and sudden shocky, unregulated breathing, his eyes burned, and his hands clenched into fists he only barely felt. 

Ahsoka's hand stilled on his hair as she tried to find the right thing to do, the best way to help him accept his place at her side to do this wild mission.

"Anakin, I've made a way for us to protect them all. To make sure that di'kut doesn't have a chance to hurt the men, or kill those that we loved," she said. "I need you to accept this… or we have already failed.

"Because, Skyguy? I can't do it without you." She let her hand move again on his hair, trying to will him to calm down from his panic.

He managed to reach with one hand, to pat at her, as he tried to fight back his body's reaction to the change, to being so different so suddenly -- ~Want to help,~ he tried to send across their ravaged bond (and found it easy, so easy), ~just... can't --~ Breathe, think, control myself... he wasn't sure which he wanted to end it with when it felt like his every nerve was suddenly sending every signal it could, as though realizing his body was whole had made his brain demand updates he couldn't possibly process. 

She shifted closer, rising up on her knees in front of him, then bowing her head to his, pressing their foreheads together. She then slipped into the bond fully, and began helping him sort it all out, sharing the burden, treating this as a healing session with a recovered vod.

How many times had she put one of them back together once they could think past the chip?

This was no different, and she gave him her strength.

It took a little bit before Anakin could let her in all the way, before he could accept her help, but.. her love was there, so blazingly, abundantly clear, and that... helped. It took longer than he thought it should have, and even when he was breathing easy and calm again, he wasn't entirely sure how much of why he'd been so overwhelmed she understood. 

"I... thanks, Snips. Where'd you learn that?" 

Her eyes were shadowed as she sat back on her butt, scooting back for the solidity of the wall again. "Sometimes, if the men we managed to steal away, had actually been at the death of a Jedi, they… had a disconnect with reality. That would vanish after the chip was gone.

"And then they would have the reaction, as if it had just been the day before, that they hurt their Jedi." She looked at him with pain of the memories. "I didn't save the first couple. Because I'd let them have their blasters."

The men... Anakin's chest ached again, but without the edge of wildness, and he closed his eyes. "So you're where they sometimes disappeared to," he said, so proud of her it almost hurt, as he tried to get his head around the rest of that. 

That _vod'e_ had suicided when they knew what they'd done burned, sank deep and painful into him, but it -- it was so very true to who they'd been. "I couldn't -- there was nothing I could do, by the time I was up again. And... Vader didn't care. About anything but," he frowned, trying to come up with words that could explain how his fractured mind had reacted to the betrayal and death of everything he'd once loved. 

"Anything but the galaxy making sense. Being orderly, logical. Predictable. I always was better with droids than people... Vader was even worse about that." 

Ahsoka nodded, and sighed softly. "We all have our own little things that, taken to an extreme, are wrongful," she said softly. "But I am pinning all chances of this working on the fact that you never really wanted the direction it all spilled out.

"That together, you and I can find ways to control the Sith rise to power, and undo them." She forced her chin up. "I'm going to turn their weapon of secrecy against them. I want to build an elite corps of Force users, like the battle academies of the first Sith war, to keep hidden away. Is that something you're comfortable with?"

Anakin nodded, shifting to sit up, to lean to carefully put his head on her shoulder. He could do that, he could move his head without his entire body, could touch skin and not fear causing harm with any too-quick move of his head -- his breath shuddered, and he hauled himself back away from paying attention to his body. "I... that makes sense, Snips. 

"Kriff, getting as many people as possible away from the Sith shrine in the Temple basement should help a lot all on its own." 

Ahsoka closed her eyes. "Much as I'd love for all of them to be away from it, someone has to guard it from Pruneface getting open access to it," she said irreverently. "No, I didn't know about it originally.

"But the place I was, after our last discussion, showed me the many nexus points of the ancient shrines and temples. That's why I never came after you again. I had to keep the passages safe from him."

"Discussion," Anakin snorted, shaking his head at his padawan as his left arm moved carefully to curve around her back, below the rear lek. "That's one word for it. And... yeah. Someone has to guard it, but. Getting people away, to somewhere else, to where they're not affected by it and can learn how not to die in droves... Is sort of where we've got to start. I think." 

Ahsoka pressed closer, tucking in against his side, like she wasn't thirty-nine years old instead of fifteen. It didn't matter that Anakin was the picture of how she had last seen him on Mandalore, before the end of it all. They were Master and Padawan.

"Of course, now we need to figure out what year it is, who is in charge, and convince them to let us have our way." She then looked at him with a smirk. "Or we can beat Knight Jaunre and Master Koon to their foundlings to make a start. Pretty sure I can make a list of them all."

Anakin snorted in amusement, as he kept hold of her, relaxing into the feeling of his padawan so close. Safe, here, still loving him, despite everything. "I guess that's one option, but... let's try the first one. Second only if we just have to." 

Ahsoka looked around again, then touched the Force again, letting the Temple sing to her. She was braced to ignore the shrine… but it was still fairly mute.

"Okay. Far enough back that the upper North Tower, which is where we are, is still not off-limits," she said. "The Evil Cantina Bar is not quite as loud as I think it must have been when I was a crecheling and it drew me down. So… maybe a generation behind where you and I came here?"

It took Anakin a second to catch on that it was the slab of the shrine Ahsoka meant as the bar, but he snorted with laughter when he did get it. "It can keep its drinks; I don't want them. And I think--" he had to stop and take a couple of deep breaths, fighting down remnants of Vader's fury and his own heartbroken love, "--Obi-Wan said the Tower had that accident when he was little. So at least that far, yeah." 

She got a hand on him, squeezing, and then took a deep breath. "We know what mistakes were made in our lifetime. Let's try and use that to avoid making more?" she suggested. "Also, and this is going to be so banal to you, I'm really kind of hungry now. Subsisting off the Force is not all it's cracked up to be."

"It's not," Anakin protested, shaking his head. "banal, I mean. At all. I... Force. I'll be able to _taste_ things!" 

What did he want? Did he have _any_ idea? 

No, he decided, he didn't know. Not that he could have, anyway. 

She pushed to a standing position, and stuck a hand down to help him to his feet. "Let's see who we run into first, and go from there."

"Alright, little one," he said, and then he was on his feet and staring _up_ at her montrals indignantly. She caught the look, and then started laughing, before leading him to the nearest lift, hand still in his.


	2. Discussions to Start With

_An infant on a pastoral planet would rise up in time._

_The Sith would reveal themselves._

_The story was written, and so it would be. Yet, sometimes, stories changed._

* * *

There had been an odd splash of power in the Force itself, high up in a tower spire that was only rarely used these days. It had drawn at Tyvokka, but those he'd been with had not actually seemed to notice. Accustomed to keeping his own counsel, the Wookiee had turned his steps toward that spire so that he might learn what the strange song in the Force was. 

He did not expect to catch the scent of actual sentients as a lift opened on the level where he needed to change over to one going up into the spire. That lift had been descending… and he braced as two of the most powerful Force users he'd seen stepped out.

One, human and male by appearance, was stronger than the other, but curiously … wounded? Healing, maybe. It was as if his full potential had been throttled. The other… ahh, Togruta! Probably female, but possibly third-gendered, as he knew that species recognized such more readily than some others. She was wearing kama and a breastplate, two lightsabers plainly visible at her waist. He was dressed in darker warrior attire espoused by some Jedi who were in battle frequently, with no lightsaber visible.

Both stopped and stared at him, while Tyvokka realized he did not recall either of their faces or signatures within the Force.

"I think it's more than a generation, maybe," the Togruta said, looking at the human. "Because I am pretty sure we just found Master Tyvokka."

[That is my name… but I do not know you,] Tyvokka said in turn, even as the Force made whispers that touched the visions he'd been plagued with for a decade or so.

Anakin bent his head and neck in a careful bow to the Wookiee -- no sense in being rude, especially not to someone that could help them so much, if he was remembering that name right -- and said, "Hello, Master. No, you wouldn't know us, but we know of you. You were long dead, though, before I came to the Temple, let alone Snips here maybe remembering." 

"I'm only five years younger," she grumbled, before she gave a proper bow and the correct amount of teeth for greeting a Wookiee elder and warrior of renown. "Forgive me, Master, but my Shryiwook was never great.

"I do understand it, as my Finder was one of your Foundlings, and he made sure I had many different classes to keep me occupied." She then realized she had not given her name, and stood tall, wishing for the first time in a long time for her teeth to mark her as a proper Huntress. "I am Ahsoka Tano, and we need your help."

[Help, you say. And mention things that are impossible, yet… the Force is humming a new song to guide me,] Tyvokka said, very intrigued by this event, by these people.

Anakin smiled a little, stretching out to listen to the song of the Force. Oh... oh it sounded so good, so different, less wounded, less grieving. It should, of course, but the reality of it was... breathtaking, after so long limited to the Dark Side. He was going to let Snips do the explaining -- he was still having a little trouble with his own flesh-and-bone legs and taking full breaths. She'd come up with this, he'd just back her up. 

"We wish to speak of the lives we have already lived… lives that went poorly for the galaxy as a whole." Ahsoka took a deep breath. "Impossible as it is to believe, Master, we are from some point far future to this one, and have been allowed a change to prevent the Sith from winning the conflict that none of the Order knew was there until it was far, far too late."

Tyvokka made a very low, menacing growl at the concept of the Sith, let alone the rest of that. [Then you will come with me, share a meal, and try to explain. The Force does not say that you lie, and you do not feel as if you are mentally unstable. So I shall listen.]

"Thank you," Anakin said, looking forward to a meal with increasing urgency and hunger -- once he'd gotten over the gut-reaction to the growl of a Wookiee. "My padawan," he looked at her amusedly, "came up with most of this crazy idea. For now, I'm just following her lead." 

"Yes, Master, but I knew you probably would, because I followed in your footsteps," Ahsoka said sweetly.

Tyvokka laughed at that exchange; it was a healthy banter of master and padawan, very reassuring. [This way,] he said, gesturing in the human way before turning to lead. Nor did he feel any wariness to have them behind him; the Force was wrapped strongly around both without being blindingly Light or Dark. 

That suggested a balanced path to find, and he was curious.

* * *

Ahsoka did most of the talking. She held Anakin's hand as she described the rapid spiral down the warpath over the course of their lives, and what it had eventually become. Tyvokka listened, staying far calmer than many Wookiees could have, and committed it to memory. Eventually, he would have to advise others of the strange case, but for now, he wished to keep that number small.

"You said it is year nine eighteen post Ruusan," Ahsoka repeated, once they had gotten to the very end. "This is much farther back than I expected to see us. I believed the beginning of what I was seeking to undo would be some time in my Grandmaster's life, and he's not even born yet!"

[And you speak of it being eighty-six years later, which is a full human's lifespan away. Perhaps, young one, the beginning has more to do with the Sith that orchestrated the end? Either by being born or entering training?] Tyvokka said to that, quite aware of how emotionally taxing the telling had been on both, and aware they had left many details very vague. That… might be good or ill.

"Maybe," Anakin agreed after a few seconds, nodding as he dug the detail he wanted out of his hazy, fractured memories of being Darth Vader. "I think... yes. There was a huge celebration of his eighty-fifth birthday, last year. Empire-wide. So. That would make sense, Snips. I just... I have no idea who his Master really was, or how he found Maul. Or corrupted -- well. No sense blaming a young man for an old one's deeds?" 

Ahsoka sighed. "Maul and Ventress came from the same place, and I know exactly which Night Witch to blame for both of them," she said in an idle voice. She focused more on the timing of it all. "If that's the case, then… I think that will work well with the plan that's brewing for me, Skyguy.

"If the Order is willing to cooperate with this on a very strange invitation from a pair of time-traveling strangers?" she added, smiling at Tyvokka.

He laughed, liking that she was so bold. [Tell me this plan.]

Anakin gestured at his padawan, indicating she needed to go on with it. 

"Make the Sith overplay themselves. We know who the Sith that was the Master at the end of the Order was," Ahsoka said. "We let you know who he is, keep the number of people aware of the truth small, so that maybe you can find the Master now and be done with it all.

"But, in case you can't find that person, you let us have some of the new younglings, and a staff of Jedi that we can fully trust to be committed to the Force," Ahsoka said, as Tyvokka shifted back, earnestly listening and weighing this. "We go to a planet that is off the beaten path, maybe one of the old praxeum or academy sites, so I know we can tap the Force clearly there.

"Anakin and I train them, ready them. The Sith think the Jedi Order is shrinking steadily, an overplayed, dying-out tradition. And… if you can't ferret out who the Sith Master now is, we move at a time when it is best to actually prevent the end of the Republic and the Order alike."

Anakin nodded his agreement, and said slowly, "The Republic, at the end of the last Sith crisis, was the most powerful force for stability and prosperity. It... isn't, any more. And the Order is too tied to it. There were so many times when I was a padawan and Knight that we wound up supporting people we _knew_ were corrupt, because the 'interests of the Republic' required it. 

"That has to stop, Master, somehow. Either with Ahsoka's plan -- which I think is the best one available, getting the younglings out of here and to somewhere not as damaged -- or... all of you making some very different decisions." 

Tyvokka rolled his shoulders a couple of times, then stood and moved to the window with its simulation of a sunlit canopy day on Kashyyyk. The Force was all but pulsing with what was being discussed, and yet…

… could he agree to such a thing? Could he trust these two strangers, even as steeped in the Force as they were with the children of the future?

Unbidden, thoughts of his last Foundling, and future padawan, came to mind. One of Yoda's students was considering taking one of those five younglings as a padawan as soon as he faced his trials. Would Plo's group be the last of the traditional padawans, trained one on one with a Knight?

Or, Tyvokka considered, was it meant for Plo and his creche mates to be the first of these new Jedi? Was that why he had swerved from adding the Kel Dor in with the other non-humans of the right age? Plo had come from a distant world that carried out little activity in the Republic beyond those duties required by their place in the Senate. The three humans and the Noorian had all been infants. None would know if the five were sent away, save the Jedi themselves, that interacted with them.

And that triggered the memory that there was another Master already considering one as a student. Tyvokka would prefer to have her here, with her sharp wits and expansive network of informants. However, if the pair would agree, she would make a prime candidate for handling discrete communications.

[I have a handful of Initiates to be your first class, on one condition,] he said.

"What would that be, Master?" Anakin asked, starting to shift his body before he remembered he could just tip his head, raise a brow, and have it seen, known and understood. 

Tyvokka turned back to the pair. [There is a Master, a Sentinel. Her methods of moving around the galaxy, of learning things, is superior to all others I know. Accept her as your first adult Jedi member, confer with her as to other Knights and Masters that can disappear over time, and I will accept this secret Academy.]

"You mean Master Jepet, don't you, Master?" Ahsoka asked. "I only ever sat a class or two with her, never met her directly, but my Finder's middle padawan spoke about her a lot. She was a Sentinel too, and said Master Jepet was almost the best Sentinel the Order had ever had."

Anakin reached for the bond, as he didn't remember this Master either, and asked, ~What do you really think, Snips? I don't remember this Master. But we do have to take someone...~ 

~Bultar trusted her. Master Kit was her student. Master Plo would ask her for advice.~ Ahsoka considered all she had ever heard. ~I know enough of her to think yes, and to be glad we can get someone who probably has extensive knowledge of any other Jedi Knights we need along the way. Plus she's Falleen in the way Lissarkh was Trandoshan. She goes against their ways for what she believes is right. Bultar told me that.~

Tyvokka made an assenting noise, even as he wondered who the best Sentinel was according to this padawan that didn't even exist.

~...those're some pretty good recommendations,~ Anakin admitted, nodding. ~If you don't have a problem with her, I don't. Yet, anyway.~ 

"I think that would work well, Master, based on all I know of her. But, I think we should meet her, and be certain she is willing to take on such a secret life for so long. There's no way of knowing when the di'kut… excuse me… the Sith we knew becomes one. After all, one of the other apprentices he had was in his sixties or seventies when he Fell," Ahsoka pointed out.

[I will arrange the meeting. I think she will find the challenge invigorating,] Tyvokka said, making up his mind to go forward with this plan.

"I hope she does," Anakin said, and meant it. "We'll definitely need the help."

* * *

Areen had listened. She had then indicated that the pair should rest and refresh themselves, construct lists of things that would be needed, while she meditated on it.

Now, the next day, with sleep having helped settle them completely, they returned to the small meditation room they had met her in. She had a stack of data pads beside her, and was sitting serenely composed with a tray of teas and delicate finger foods to share with them.

"I have studied the archives, through the night, and discovered a few places that might suit our needs, as well as reviewed the current batch of initiates and crechelings, to see who has no contact with their bloodkin," Areen told the pair. "To start quietly."

Ahsoka looked at the pads, then her, and smiled broadly, almost managing to remind Anakin of his tiny padawan that she had once been. "Master, you really are as good as I was told."

Anakin made a curious sound, looking between the otherwise unknown Master and his padawan. "Tell us about them?" he invited, before he decided if he liked the angle she'd taken. But the throwing herself into it, that he did like. 

"Telos IV once held an academy for the Jedi. It is a planet of many peoples, and while it is distant in the Outer Rim, it is close to the Hydian lane. The facility itself sits in the polar region, but all accounts say that it was well-designed for the region," she began. "Nicely out of the way without being too disconnected.

"Closer, merely in the Expansion Region, is Teya IV. It's main benefit is being too insignificant in all ways to offer a serious starting point to a search for us," Areen said. "I cannot find much in the way of the state of the Praxeum that was there."

"By what I know, it had been picked over before the Sith made it there to destroy Jedi history," Ahsoka said. "I sought out such places, hoping to find holocrons to continue my education."

"The third," Areen said, nodding to that in approval, "is H'ratth, in the Inner Rim. As it was the home to the Jedi Order during Sunrider's leadership, it may be in similar shape to Teya IV, but has location on its side, and an abundant ecology to become self-sufficient with."

Anakin shook his head, "I don't recognize that one at all, so that's a point in its favor. I know quite a few of the places that were raided and destroyed. ...and something about Telos IV is reminding me of -- of my Master, but not pleasantly. I can't quite catch it. Any idea, Snips?" 

Ahsoka looked at him, then shook her head. "Nothing I remember, Skyguy," she answered after a long moment. "But we'll avoid it on general purpose.

"The idea of starting this where Nomi Sunrider recast the Order is very appealing to me. I've read her legends. Anyone in tune enough with the Force to stabilize a Force Ghost and then learn from him is someone worth following in my books!"

"You seem so certain of that part of the legend, young one. I look forward to hearing more about it, when we have leisure," Areen told her.

"I'm not going to argue," Anakin decided, nodding at Ahsoka -- he'd always liked those legends, and since it was somewhere he didn't know of, it should be safer than one _he_ had known to strike, or one that washed acid against his nerves for some reason he couldn't place. 

"H'ratth, then." Areen set a pad to display the planet with its sparse population and lush vegetation for a moment, then narrowed in on the grounds of the Academy ruins. "It will take some work," she pointed out.

"Bring in younger service corps members that failed to advance due to age," was Ahsoka's immediate reply to that. "Skyguy and I both know how to rig temporary camps, and can adapt to making actual settlements, I bet."

Anakin hummed agreement. "Not new... and that's an excellent idea, Snips. Besides, they deserve better than what they got from the Order. Not that some of them are going to think hard work on a remote planet is all that great, but we can probably teach them enough to make up for it." 

Areen nodded, as she understood the benefits of that arrangement. "Now, about personnel. You two and I are not enough teachers, in the long run. We will need more. Some can be those who still wish to give to the future but are less able to meet the demands physically. Some should be those who are younger and more vigorous.

"All should be acceptable to each of you, as such a small Academy, as it will be in the beginning, needs to move without friction. I have a datapad for each of you of those I recommend among the elder ones, and general notes on the younger set."

Ahsoka nodded at that idea. "We will grow, but at first, yes, we need as much harmony as possible, to find the right path."

Anakin cast the datapad an uncertain eye -- of the older Masters, he remembered few of them fondly, and most of the ones he did probably weren't even born, or were very young at best. But she was right. "I'm not exactly great with people, but. You're right, and we'll figure it out." 

"If your forte is materials," Areen said, "then you can peruse the planet, what we know of the old site, and decide what things we shall need." She passed over another pad, the one with H'ratth on it. "As I am not accustomed to building from the ground up for more than a bounty hunter's kit and ship."

Ahsoka grinned at that. "I bet you're underselling yourself, based on stories I heard, but Skyguy is great with logistics and such."

Anakin smiled at that, honest and real, and reached for that datapad, taking it from her. _That_, he actually could do, and do kriffing well. 

"What are you thinking about who we take from the current children in the Temple?" Ahsoka asked, curious on that subject, even as she idly scanned through the names on her pad.

"Tyvokka is insistent I take one specific clan of younglings, which was why he thought of me," Areen told her. "It will take a little effort on his part to keep the theft from certain eyes, but all came as infants to the Temple, and only one has standing familial contact.

"Nor will that contact be difficult to accommodate; it may mean further alliance for us."

"One clan of..." Anakin's eyes lifted from the pad to stare across at Ahsoka, not sure if what he was feeling was exhilaration or panic or both, but if Master Tyvokka was insisting, from everything he'd ever heard, and it was this year... Did she really mean -- was it -- 

Ahsoka swallowed eyes going so big, despite being an adult, at the idea. "Oh. I should have known, when he wanted you… too early for… no, no mention. Have to make sure of him later, but not now," she said, aware she was babbling.

It wasn't every day that you got told you'd be dealing with your Finder as a child!

"You know who he means, I take it, and have connections?" Areen asked patiently. "If that will be a problem, I could push back… but will likely ask Master Sinube to take my place with you." She had her heart set on that brilliant little thinker!

"That clan," Anakin said, cutting in to give Snips a chance to breathe, "has both of our Finders, but... no, I don't think it's a problem. It would be good to get to take care of them. At least... for me. Snips, you gonna be okay? I mean, with what the Council pulled on you..." 

She shook her head. "Wolffe and the clan explained, as best they could, how he regretted it," she said softly. "And… they aren't those people. None of them will be." She drew in a deep breath. "Right, Skyguy, get used to using xie or xir. No gender until they mature," she told him.

Areen chuckled. "You are educated on that part. Good. It will help."

"I've spent time with the Sages," Ahsoka agreed. "They will help. I know it."

"Xie, xir," Anakin repeated, trying to knock those pronouns into his head for the _youngling_ that was Master Plo. "Okay. Can-do. I got used to some of the vod'e being sisters not brothers, after all. And good. So. We'll be glad to have them along, Master. And you." 

"That is good to know, because I have this deep desire to unravel the full mystery of the enemy," Areen said, pleased that she would be able to raise a padawan up with a very specific focus. The others… she would find suitable teachers, and maybe they would not have the one-on-one method at the Academy, but the new crop of Jedi would be very well prepared.

Ahsoka settled back to study her pad then, nibbling on the snacks, and let herself truly hope for a better future.


	3. The First Class

_The Jedi could not fight what it did not know. This prime tenet guided the Sith secret existence. Make the galaxy push and pull at the Order, wearing them down, that was the plan. In time, all would be clear, and the Order would fail its duty to the Republic._

_The Sith knew, explicitly, that the Jedi Order did not understand such deviousness._

* * *

Hidden away in a little used hall of the Temple, five Initiates had come together because their central point, Plo Koon, had asked. The Kel Dor looked nervous, tusks flicking, and the extra-sensory organs rippling a little with all the thinking that needed to be done.

"Master Tyvokka wanted me to ask you all something, but it is very super-secret and can never be spoken of, no matter the answer given today," xie said as the other four settled in their spots around the small meditation room they had claimed for themselves.

"What is it, Plo?" Tahl asked xir, cocking her head curiously at the mix of seriousness and nerves obvious on their crechemate. 

Ky hummed equal curiosity, fingers walking a stylus back and forth over his fingers. 

Micah settled on his front, stretched out on the thick rug, propping his chin on his hands. "Haven't seen you this nervous since your last trip home to learn if you could also studying Sage techniques," he teased his friend lightly.

Qui-Gon kept quiet, just watching, waiting for the reason.

"They are sending some of us to a world, far away, to begin a new Academy, to focus on learning techniques to find and thwart Dark Side warriors," Plo told them all. "Master Tyvokka wishes us to go, and understands this is something we need to decide together, because of me and what I have done to us."

Tahl blinked, surprised. "But... why should we go far away? All the teachers are here, aren't they? And the main archives, that would have information about that kind of thing." 

Ky nodded -- those were good questions, but Master Tyvokka would have a good reason. "We wouldn't have things any other way, Plo, you know that." 

Plo brought xir tusks in tight, then reached and gathered them all into the mindscape, when Micah rolled back up, meaning to move to Plo's side at the curious hesitation.

~Plo?~ Qui asked as that hold on them solidified into a place/experience that was more private than anything else could be.

~There is a hidden enemy that they wish to hide some of us from. Teachers will be chosen, and it may not be the one-on-one teaching that has been Tradition for so long, but more like the Sages, with all sharing their skills to the classes.~ Plo let them all digest that, then continued. ~My Finder thinks we are some of the best that are due to be matched soon, and wishes us to lead the way.~

~A mystery, danger, and being first? I will gladly go!~ Micah said with cheerful abandon for the danger implied.

Qui-Gon sat quiet for a few seconds, thinking about Yan, and that he was probably soon to Knight, and had already said he would like him as a padawan... but Micah wanted to go. Plo wanted to go, or they wouldn't be talking about it at all. And there was that Yan didn't like how close his youngling clan was, which didn't suit him at all. That would be a conflict, and that wasn't good in a master and padawan. Also he liked the idea of group teaching, not having them separated so much. ~...it sounds good to me,~ he finally said. 

Tahl and Ky looked at him, then launched over to hug him, knowing what that meant. None of the rest of them had a Master eyeing them yet, so it wasn't as hard. 

~I still think the Archives have histories we need, but maybe that is being thought of and such will go with us,~ Tahl said, throwing her choice in with Plo. That left Ky, who shrugged.

~We are one,~ he said simply, in harmony with the choice. It would mean having a new place to explore, and that called him strongly.

Qui-Gon hugged them both, hanging on to them, quietly grateful for their understanding. ~So we are,~ he agreed. ~Master Tyvokka will be pleased, yes, Plo?~ 

~Yes! He was very hopeful for us to choose this new path!~ Xie let Micah tuck along xir side, leaning in for a moment, before they moved to the trio and made the hug complete.

~It feels right,~ Ky murmured, as the Force wrapped around and touched them all a little more intently.

* * *

Ahsoka stood next to Anakin, watching as the first Jedi arrived. They had gone ahead, taking a team of nearly thirty Support Corps members, carefully chosen and vetted by them and the two Jedi Masters they were trusting. 

It wasn't a pretty facility, but it was functional, set to the side of the ruins. The Support Corps were evaluating the ruins for repair, which meant the facility they were starting in was intended to be temporary, yet it had been built solidly enough to be a generation or more before it would need expansion or repair.

Prefabricated units were a blessing, after all.

Areen was first off, and surrounding her were the eldest of the Initiates, all close to ten standard years old, and moving with that uncanny synchronicity that evoked a batch of vod'e for both of the time-tossed Force users.

"They're so small," Ahsoka whispered.

Anakin looked from them to her and said, just as quietly, "They're not that much smaller than you were when I met you, Snips." 

She snorted and made a tiny foot stomp. That might be true… but she had been older. "I was older," she decided to say, because nothing else was coming to mind to soothe her wounded dignity.

The others, a youngling clan of maybe nine mixed species, and two adult Jedi, one an elder Master and the other a junior Knight, came off the ship as well, looking around. Ahsoka thought that maybe, possibly, both adults looked excited under their Jedi serenity. The children were certainly wide-eyed and eager to explore.

"That was sort of my point," Anakin replied with a laugh, and he managed to smile at the crowd coming off the ship. He'd had a bad night the night before, memories lashing up to attack him, but Ahsoka didn't let him sleep alone and she'd helped a lot. "Come on, let's go say hi." 

Ahsoka moved in step with him, going toward the groups. She gave a broad smile, the careful one that didn't show teeth, because these younglings and Initiates had not met a Togruta yet, most likely. Master Ti had been the first in several generations, after all!

"Welcome to H'ratth," she said, looking at all of them. "And thank you for coming to learn at this new Academy."

"We are looking forward to it," the elder master, a Volpai with the distinctive yellow striping along their four arms, said in a voice that Ahsoka took as honest and even kind. 

"Yes, we are," the Etti Knight said, smiling brightly as he took in all of the work already done for their new school. "The reason may be a harsh one, but it is exciting to try and find new ways of teaching, to safeguard the future."

Ahsoka decided she liked him, a lot, for that.

"I think so, too," Anakin agreed. "Just to be polite, I'm Anakin, this is Fulcrum. I'm glad you're here, all of you. There's a lot to do, but I'm sure we can. Where do all of you want to start getting used to the place?" 

"Perhaps you can guide us to the living areas, let us put our things away, and then tour the rest of it?" the Volpai suggested. "I am Master Vixard. My specialty is in history, and I have brought a significant amount of data to enhance the archive I am told you have begun here," they said.

"That will be very welcome," Ahsoka said. "Thank you, and it is a good suggestion."

"Knight Zydre," the Etti told them, "and it might be best, rather than have the younglings wearing their packs through the entire tour."

"Definitely," Anakin agreed, and smiled again at Knight Zydre. Etti were so delicate looking, but he seemed to be having no trouble with the pack on his own back. "All right, then. This way, everyone." 

Areen did not smile outwardly, but this was an auspicious beginning. She placed a hand on Qui-Gon's shoulder to turn him in the right direction, and the other four followed promptly, as they joined the parade into the facility that would be home, school, and haven to them all in the darkness that would grow in the galaxy.

* * *

Micah twisted quickly, catching the blow Ky had aimed his way on the smaller lightsaber, before ducking his upper body back and getting the long one up in the way of Tahl's swipe at him with her lightstaff. He was so thrilled to be showing off his jar'kai skills. Likewise, Qui-Gon was using the dual-wielding Ataru form, holding off Plo in the same form. 

It was just a fun match, and the shifts happened quickly on who was facing whom. They had a timer set, but honestly, the pair watching them wondered if they would even hear the buzzer, as big as their smiles were and loud as the taunts were.

"Jar'kai and the Ataru dual-wield aren't usually taught as true focuses until fourteen in the Temple," Ahsoka said. "I'm glad we didn't impose that rule. They move more naturally than I did when you agreed to let me change form because they started younger."

She leaned against Anakin's side, both of them on an upper walkway above the five eldest students.

"I noticed the smoothness, but couldn't put a finger on why," Anakin replied, "since Master Obi-Wan just taught me as we went along. And I didn't have any 'saber training at all until I was ten. All of it came about the same to me. Makes sense, though. 

"And they're _adorable_." 

"It's like watching vod'e, Skyguy. They are so in sync." Ahsoka smiled as Ky managed a flip that let him tag Micah's shoulder, 'killing' his ability to use the long lightsaber. "He's good with a single lightsaber. I wonder why he doesn't usually spar with both.

"The one from our time was apparently good with saber and staff, like I saw Master Ti fight a few times. At least in the stories I heard about him."

"Yeah? I don't remember him at all, where'd you hear stories?" Anakin asked, curious, as the fight went on below. 

"Asajj. He trained her, originally," Ahsoka said, and let Anakin process that a moment before moving on. "It's really no wonder that everyone said Master Plo got better once he had the Pack. If this is what he was like before losing them all, I mean."

"Sometimes I can't believe xie's the same person," Anakin admitted, after a few seconds of not saying a word, trying to wrap his head around 'Asajj' said with affection and sadness instead of spitting hatred. "I mean, xie's so playful and cheery. But then... telepath. And they were all gone by the time I knew him. That would... have to hurt. 

"I just hope we've changed things enough that xie doesn't go through what he did. Any of it." 

It would help if he had any idea what had happened to Tahl, but other than knowing she'd died when his Master and Bant were still early teens, he had absolutely no idea, and Ahsoka even less. 

"We'll try to keep them together as much as possible, once they are old enough to go out and investigate for us." Ahsoka was firmly of a mind to go to Rattatak when the time was right; she could raise Asajj to be a proper Night Sister, prime her for thwarting Talzin, if that side of events still wound up in play. She had learned more of their 'magic' than she actually needed to use, after all.

And Asajj herself had said much of the skill was passed down in their genetic memories. It was part of what made the stable hybrids like her so dangerous.

She then laughed brightly as Micah, using just the one armed approach, managed to disarm Ky, only to be fully 'killed' by Qui-Gon, who had shifted targets. There were three left now, and Tahl regrouped to decide how to face two dual-wielders on her own.

"Absolutely," Anakin agreed. "Another level of cover for them, after all." Jedi never moved in groups, that was known everywhere. He glanced to see what Ahsoka had laughed at, and cocked his head. "This might get interesting..." 

"I think it will." Ahsoka shifted a little to lean forward, watching as Plo held back, and Qui-Gon moved in, raining quick blows down that were caught and twisted off their aim by both ends of the staff in succession.

Plo edged in to try and tangle her up, away from the ability to spin that staff quite so fast. She was wary of that, and shifted her stance to allow her to make rapid leaps as needed, not letting them box her in.

"Hm... think she can actually draw them apart successfully?" Anakin asked, watching the way she moved -- she was incredibly quick, and completely sure of herself as she made that staff into a whirl of defense as much as her perpetual movement was. 

"She's very good, and without the telepathy, during these sessions, it might be enough," Ahsoka said, almost cheering when that staff fouled one of Plo's lightsabers, knocking it from xir hand. "Wow. That's hard to do with a lightsaber," she added when the other end blocked Qui-Gon's dominant lightsaber in the next heartbeat.

Anakin nodded sharply, grinning in delight as Tahl sent Plo's lost lightsaber -- the hilt only, now -- sailing to the far end of the training room with a flick of telekinesis, then went back on the defense. 

"Oh, she is excellent," Ahsoka crooned softly. "That reminds me; has Zydre been teaching them to use the telekinesis with things in their hands? The earlier they learn it, the less likely they will be to have trouble with it in combat."

Qui-Gon rushed just then, looking as if he were going to go aerial, and then stopped as the staff moved a fraction upward, bending back and extending his lightsaber adeptly to tag her on the thigh, before dropping fully and rolling from the belated counter.

Tahl cursed and dropped to that knee with a second oath, killing the lower half of her 'saber... then sighed and killed the other as well. 

That left the two dual-wielders to focus on each other, and Anakin braced his chin on his hand as he watched, leaning on the rail. 

Plo considered the odds, as Qui-Gon still had both his lightsabers, while xie was down to one, by their own rules. The tusks flexed minutely, and then xie exploded into motion, coming in with full Ataru whirlwind energy. Qui-Gon met Plo, parrying each one, until he seemed to lose his footing, just slightly, and Plo tagged him directly in the chest.

"How did you manage that?!" Qui-Gon demanded, even as he powered down both sabers, staring at his friend.

"I know you. You get overconfident when you are tiring, thinking that will is more than physical stamina," Plo said, proud of the trick. "You weren't guarding against the Push."

"Ha! Sneaky Kel Dor," Ahsoka said, proud of her Finder for managing what few Jedi could in the middle of a fight, using telekinesis to break a person's footing or hold on something.

"Very well done," Anakin said, "And in answer to your question... I'm not sure, but you're right. The earlier they learn their hands really doesn't matter at all, the better." 

"I'll check with him." Ahsoka watched the five gather weapons, clip them into place, and then jostle each other to figure out where they all wanted to be as they headed out to find food. "I see now why Master Tyvokka thought of them immediately. Not just because Plo was his Foundling, but because they were already outside of Jedi normal ranges."

"How much of that do you think they owe to Plo, and how much is just... who they each are, innately?" Anakin questioned, not that he really cared all that much about the answer. It was just an intriguing question. 

Ahsoka took the time to consider the question, weighing each one individually. "I think all five would have excelled in their fields, but once you add in that xie basically gave them a hivemind capability? They all were transformed. 

"I spent time in Dorin. I saw all the ways that Master Plo was different from his species. I saw it developing in his youngest child, because that one was so bonded to Wolffe." She grinned. "So it's both, really."

"Like most things, then," Anakin said with a matching wry smile. "Alright." 

She moved to stretch, now that the five had left, and took one of his hands. "Come on, Skyguy; I'm hungry." She pulled gently, guiding him to join her for a meal before duty had them tackling other things.

* * *

Since Tyvokka had not yet made good on his threat to join them on H'ratth, it was Ahsoka that took the pilgrimage with Plo, as she had done every year near xir name day, so that xie could learn the ways of the Sage, xir own people, and more of how xie wished to bridge the two traditions of study.

This year was different, and Ahsoka was nearly as excited as Plo and xir friends, to see just how this would go. She gave herself over the Force, to let it calm her some, so that she did not add to xir anxiety.

"Fulcrum?" Plo asked, as they were alone, and Ahsoka had done all she could to be approachable, refusing the title of Master unless absolutely necessary for protocols. She, who had never been a Knight, did not want the rank of a tradition that had thrown her away.

"Yes, Plo?"

"You have Sight of the future," Plo began. "This is known. The Sages listen to you. The Jedi listen to you. You carry lightsabers that are the color of myth." Xie fidgeted a little then, while Ahsoka let her eye-mark rise a little, saying nothing. "I am curious as to what I seem to be in those visions."

Ahsoka laughed softly at that, then reached over to grip xir shoulder. "My young student, you will not get that answer from me. We are nearly to your clan's caves, and you will go to meditate there. You will find the path that is meant to be from here and now, not the one I have seen.

"Written in stone, the future is not. Changes that I have tried to guide mean this world grows ever more different than the one Anakin and I have seen. So, young one, let nature turn its course, and you will thrive, no matter which final gender you come to be."

Plo let xir tusks flare a little, having hoped to find something for a guide in her words, but Fulcrum, as ever, was careful in what she would share.

"Yes, Fulcrum."

* * *

Tahl, waiting for the ship to finish its shutdown, tried to hold still rather than sway from foot to foot in curious impatience -- but she was so hoping that Plo would come back as a girl. She'd done her best not to show it, or let Plo realize, but with three boys already... She _was_ going to be happy, whatever her crechemate came back as, she _was_. 

The ship's running lights went off, and the hatch cracked, but still no Plo appeared. Off to her side, Micah let out a sigh, being uncharacteristically impatient… but Tahl knew those two had started poking at physical intimacy. 

Fulcrum came down first, and behind her, finally, was Plo… who looked little different. Neither the base color nor the spots had changed shades, and those were the two clearest indicators of gender to non-Kel Dor. Women tended to darker skin and lighter spots, with men the exact opposite. Plo hesitated at the end of the ramp, even though there was no way Plo hadn't known two of them were waiting.

"Well, are you going to get down here so we can hug you, or what?" Tahl demanded, still curious. "And welcome home, Plo." 

"Oh, don't be so pushy," Micah retorted, even as he put his own arms out. 

"As if she can be anything else," Plo said as Fulcrum turned and headed toward the wing with personal quarters. While Master Jepet was adept at making certain Anakin remained occupied, and rarely alone, everyone knew their Academy leaders did not separate for long.

Plo came down to them, and Micah realized that nothing had really changed in their friend, from color to other slight alterations gender maturity brought about.

"Of course I am," Tahl answered, even as she moved to hug Plo in close. She wasn't certain yet just how things had gone, but their sibling was home, and that was what mattered most. 

Micah considered everything he had read, everything Plo had shared about Kel Dor, and then smiled brightly. "You chose the middle path." He pressed in as Plo settled in Tahl's hug, wrapping his own arms around them both as best he could.

Plo let out an exhalation. "It felt right, to remain 'xie', and not choose one over the other."

"Oh... well!" Tahl laughed, and hugged a little tighter. "I was sort of hoping for a sister," she admitted now that it wasn't pressure, "but this is also wonderful. Sibling still, then." 

Plo chuckled at her. "Vod. That's the word in the Mando'a that Fulcrum and Anakin insisted we learn," xie said. 

"What's this all mean for, you know, clan contributions?" Micah asked, irrepressible about learning everything. Plo gave a hitch of one shoulder, mimicking xir crechemates' physical manners. 

"If I choose to, I can. I'd just need more help in the biochemicals, for whichever role I took. Not that I think we'll have time for such, even if my people do want more Force-strong children. We are here to learn how to avert a cataclysm after all."

"Well, yes," Micah admitted, "but I also know what you told me about your kin that go off-world often." 

"Vod, indeed," Tahl agreed, kissing xir cheek. 

Plo let xir tusks show how amused xie was. "Maybe after we find the threat, and end it," xie agreed. "Now. Shall we go find our brothers?"

"Think they both wound up on extra duty because of a prank," Micah said, eyes gleaming. "Somehow they managed to be named for how a dye wound up in the wash, changing many tunics to odd colors."

"Somehow, is it?" Plo asked, xir tusks twitching even more, as xie looked from Tahl to Micah again. "And when did this incident happen?" 

Tahl laughed, her own eyes merry. "Two days ago," she said. "They were the only ones that anyone remembered seeing down there."

"The tunics are much brighter now?" Micah said, even as he knew their brothers would, somehow, get even with him for escaping extra duty. None of them would ever cough up the others' names if cornered.

"I'm sure I'll like the colors," Plo replied with a chuckle, shaking xir head, "but their timing," ~And yours,~ he said mentally to them both, "could have been better. Now I have to wait to see them."

"That might be part of why it was today, given our esteemed teachers," Tahl had to admit. "As far as making an impact on them." 

Micah shrugged. "I thought it was just so we could have all your attention for a bit," he said cheekily. "Come on. We'll go snag food and have it waiting in our rooms for when they get done."

"Good idea," Tahl agreed, knowing just which treats to grab for both to make it up to them.

* * *

[I feel I should go to them,] Tyvokka said, sitting on the chair, long legs in front of him, as Yoda sat opposite him on a cushion. [We have come no closer to discerning the identity of the Master, and it might, in the long run, require the aid of the Wookiee navigators to safely move the ones that must join them first.]

"Sure of this, you are? Leaving, as well as path taken by them?"

Yoda, finally apprised of the fullness of the plan that had been taking Jedi from them over the last several years, was worried. He had known for some time that the darkness of the future was growing. He'd even had a glimpse of a glowing light, waiting to beat back the shadows, but not the details.

Now he had more pieces of the puzzle, to include the enigma of Tyvokka's own visions over the last century.

[The leaving, it might wait another few years. I feel Windu's ability will help the Council fly its course best. Replacing other key members between now and then, to best support those abilities, that should be my focus.

[As to the other, I would never have agreed, if Areen and I both hadn't been certain of the need. She has combed every contact she has, even going to the pirate queen, and found little to guide us to the current Sith, yet her people tell her of unrest that grows in remote corners of the galaxy. Unrest that springs up swiftly and destabilizes the planets with little in the way of long-standing cause to explain it.]

"Enemy's trickery, to that we resort," Yoda said, none too satisfied, but willing to cope. He looked up at his friend, one of the elder Jedi that still actively guided the Order. "When, hmm, go shall you?"

[I will know the time.]


	4. Settling In and Reunions of a Sort

_Everyone knew the Order was in decline. Every year, there were fewer Knights to meet the needs of the Republic. Where once the halls had rang with laughter from young padawan learners, now only silence remained, weighing heavy on all that remained._

_The Grand Master of the Order portrayed deep solemnity if asked about the lack of Force-strong children._

_Parents whispered of such children being offered, only to have them vanish as if they had never existed after being refused._

_Legendary Jedi, such as Tyvokka of Kashyyyk, took difficult missions, overcame them… and vanished._

_The Sith merely had to outlive their enemies at this rate._

* * *

Ahsoka looked over the current roster of the Jedi versus that of the Praxeum, trying to discern if there were key pieces that needed to be switched yet. They were nearing the year that Master Obi-Wan would be old enough to come, as they were not taking younglings, save those they Found themselves, from the Temple until the youngling was at least five standard years old.

"Skyguy," she said, even though his attention had already been turning her way. Over thirty years together now, and they were attuned to one another at levels that were uncanny, even to the others of their staff. "What do you know of Master Obi-Wan's age-mates, his youngling Clan? 

"I met Vos, and I knew Knight Eerin, but what about the others? Are there any that he will need more than others?"

"Knight Tachi," Anakin answered, "and... the one that died right before I came to the Temple. The old weaponsmaster's padawan. Dara, no... Darsha. I can't remember her surname, all I can get is Asajj and I know that's not right." 

Ahsoka shrugged. "Knight Tachi I think I knew. She had that stuck up padawan and they taught a class on infiltration once," she said, kicking through her memories of growing up in the Temple. "If Darsha is Master Bondara's, I don't think we should take her. But maybe it will go better for her, with the changes we are making."

Anakin bared his teeth for a long moment at the mention of Ferus Olin, his eyes narrowing, but then he sighed, trying to let go of that. They'd both been stupid children, surely he ought to be past such resentments by now. "...I hope you're right, Snips." 

"We learned a lot on how to keep our water-breathers happy with Kit. I think we should ask for Knight Eerin, to get at least one more healer in our ranks. You know, if that's the way she goes, once she's here." Having had to save 'no' to Krieth Nimpur, when that one had been found, had smarted, but Ahsoka thought Vokara Che needed that support more, in time.

And they would have Asajj Ventress, hard as that was going to go on Anakin at first. She was not abandoning the girl to become the bitter killer again. Or worse, as Ky Narec would not be there to save her as he had been.

"That sounds good to me," Anakin agreed, "I know they were important to each other. And yeah... another healer would be very good." He reached to squeeze her shoulder, knowing she missed the Devaronian Knight. 

She leaned into it, and then went back to making notes. The closer they got to their own lifetimes, the more worried she became over making so little headway in discovering the Master that had trained Palpatine. Areen had informants through the galaxy, looking, and yet… they still knew nothing.

* * *

Because of the request for the Mon Cal named Bant Eerin, Obi-Wan Kenobi had not left the Temple at age five. Tyvokka had studied his progress on changing the Council to something the young Jedi Mace Windu could eventually inherit, and opted to retire, certain of the path Master Yoda would set until such time as Mace was experienced enough to sit on the Council. 

That should happen in a few short years, if the Force's whispers were anything to go by. Until then, they had managed to get Master Rancisis to hold the reins, after assuring him that a successor had been chosen, but was unready as of yet.

That arranged, when Kenobi was eight, Tyvokka had come through the Initiates and younglings alike, choosing some to take alongside the requested Mon Cal and human. As ever, the Service Corps personnel that handled supplying the Praxeum also managed the transportation, but Tyvokka always made it a point to speak to each child individually.

When he spoke to Kenobi, there was an echo of destiny, and the tall stormy man that had been part of the beginning of this all filled Tyvokka's mind for a moment. 

Knowing the Force had a plan for this boy, Tyvokka turned to his own needs, taking a mission in distant parts of the galaxy, from which he would not return to the Temple.

* * *

"Skyguy?" Ahsoka asked, standing up on the walkway as the Corps ship discharged the small group of children. "I think you're the right one for this settling in," she added, using her own focus on the pack of children, the one red-headed kid with a small Mon Cal on his hand, to show Anakin why.

"...are you serious, Snips?" Anakin asked, almost under his breath, turned sideways to stare at her. 

That... that tiny child couldn't be his Master, could it? 

Ahsoka smiled fondly as she reached a hand up to play with Anakin's hair a little, knowing it would either calm him… or distract him from his surprise.

"Pretty sure the only human plus Mon Cal I have asked for is my other master and his best friend," she said playfully.

Below, Obi-Wan kept a firm hold on Bant's hand, as the adults reassured them and tried to begin guiding them toward the living quarters. He'd listened to the stories they had told on the ship, about a great adventure to learn new Jedi ways, and he'd been hopeful. Here, they were all going to be on new ground, and the lessons were more hands-on, the adults said. There was no Bruck to bully him, or pick on Bant and start a fight.

"That's sort of what I'm worried about," Anakin muttered back to her, but then he took a breath, reached for the Force... and relaxed. He'd welcomed children to the Praxeum dozens of times, seen the younglings they'd first dealt with grow up -- and why he and Snips were aging so slowly was a question no one seemed able to answer -- into skilled, senior Knights. He could do this. 

He headed that way, and soon enough, was with the younglings. "Welcome," he said, crouching down so that he was more on their level. "I'm Anakin. We're glad to have you here." 

Obi-Wan felt Bant sort of try to hide behind him as a stranger, an adult one, spoke to them, but he just shifted his hand hold to an arm around her shoulders to steady her. He then looked at the human, apparently male, that had addressed them. One hand was gloved but the other wasn't, and he had long hair like some Knights and Masters did. 

He also had a scar, and Obi-Wan felt a chill, as he thought he'd seen a scarred face like that once in his dreams.

"They were a good lot, full of chatter and play, once they understood they weren't being taken away to never be Jedi, sir," the Corps member closest said. "We had fun coming here, and now they're ready to learn the new ways."

"I'm glad to hear that, Loria," Anakin said, looking up towards them, then looked back to the younglings. "It's all right, youngling Eerin. Youngling Kenobi. I try to meet most of the younglings as you come in." He looked at the others, greeting each of them by name as well. 

He remembered some of them as knights, occasional presences in his Master's life, but now... they were just kids. Just younglings that needed the care and protection he'd failed at in the future that wasn't going to exist. 

"He knows my name!" Bant whispered up at her best friend, who just kind of grinned. 

"We were invited, remember? Of course the head of the Praxeum is going to know who he invited," Obi-Wan said.

Loria smiled, then beckoned. "All of you, come along. There are quarters for you waiting, and food after."

"I'll see you all again," Anakin promised, and got back up to let the younglings go on and get settled. 

They filed past, and because he couldn't _not_ watch them, he saw Obi-Wan turn and try to catch a little more of a look at him. On being noticed, though, the boy's freckles vanished under a flush that went to his ears.

Anakin smiled back at him, though, soft and gentle as he could. How, how could that tiny, freckled, blazingly red-headed blushing child be the same soul as his urbane, cultured, debonair Master? 

Ahsoka came down to him as the children vanished from sight. "Well, now that I know you'll be occupied awhile, I have an errand to run," she said. "I think a new class is a good distraction."

"They're always something," Anakin agreed, but he was awfully curious what errand she meant, and he cocked his head at her. She leaned in and kissed his cheek. 

"Foundling waiting to be Found. You'll meet them when I get back." She was not going to have him stewing over the meeting the whole time she was gone. "Did I mention my grandmaster is a cute little kid? How do you humans change colors that drastically?"

"I have no idea," Anakin replied with a shake of his head, hand curving around her hip for a moment, "and... he _is_. I don't -- how is he so... cute?" 

Ahsoka laughed happily, and just leaned into him for a moment. "Have fun, Skyguy, getting used to him and all the new ones. I think Elder Fisto might be coming by week's end, but you know his plans change at the drop of a tentacle." She pulled free to go pack, having planned on this moment, but not knowing when it would come.

If she had her math right, Asajj was on Rattatak, but not yet falling into the hopelessness she had possessed by the time Ky Narec came. It was the best time to get her, and ground her in the Light.

"You take care of yourself, Snips," he returned, and let her go.

* * *

While the master-padawan tradition was not stood on at the Praxeum, it was not unusual for a Knight to invest more time in a younger student that had caught their eye as promising. So Qui-Gon, who had made certain Feemor excelled in advanced training, was no stranger to the pull a student could have. At forty-three, he'd explored many avenues, with and without his partners. He'd actually confirmed the existence of Sith holocrons even, for Master Jepet, in one of his investigations on Jedha.

He knew, as all of the first students here did, that the galaxy growing darker was no accident. They might not be able to bring it to a single source, but they had all run into pieces of a wide net of malign influence. He didn't necessarily want to take time and settle on H'ratth for a time to teach, and yet…

...that little red-headed boy had so earnestly thrown himself into the obstacle course with its stun remotes and difficult barriers that had to be thought through. Qui-Gon, watching from above, had watched the boy outlast half of the students that had run it before. It made him curious, even as the Force sang at him.

Anakin padded up beside him, glancing down at the obstacle course... and his mouth curved a little at the sight of little Obi-Wan being his usual persistent self. It was so odd, interacting with Master Qui-Gon so much younger than he remembered him, but all grown up from the young boy he'd first met. "Tenacious," he said mildly, "isn't he?" 

"Certainly. One of the many traits that you and Fulcrum say will stand us in good stead when the Sith truly step forward," Qui-Gon said. "He's determined, and he is using his wits to do what his body is not strong enough for yet." 

"Yeah," Anakin said with a smile, "on both counts." 

He was very glad to see Qui-Gon already interested. He remembered the stories from others about the difficult start he and Master Obi-Wan had had (because of the one that had gone wrong and bad), and was hopeful it would go better this time. 

Qui-Gon half-smiled as the boy finally strayed too far off the safe path, getting tagged with the light stun. He accepted his defeat… but not without studying the part of the course as he walked out the side of it. "I think he's plotting on his next attempt."

"Pretty sure you're right," Anakin agreed, knowing that set to Obi-Wan's jaw, even so small, all too well. 

Qui-Gon turned to face him. "He's one of the better known players in your visions, isn't he?" the Knight asked mildly, just to have the full information to make his plans with.

Anakin couldn't help the aching, adoring curve of his smile. "That's one way to put it," he agreed, "but yes, I saw him with you." 

And that was an entirely truthful statement, wasn't it, despite their careful misdirection of the kids' curiosity about how they knew what they knew. 

That made the Knight look back down, and consider. "He's… not even ten. Plenty of time." He nodded to himself, choosing. Teaching Feemor, taking the younger one with him once he was cleared for off-world investigations, had been rewarding.

"There is," Anakin agreed, breathing a little easier than he had been. This was a good thing, Qui-Gon seeing Obi-Wan and wanting to be involved... definitely good. "One thing we still have is some time." 

"So you and Fulcrum seem certain of, and it does look that way. They have not yet consolidated the network of trouble they are weaving," Qui-Gon said. "Or so Micah says." He said it with pride. Nominally, Areen Jepet led the intelligence efforts. In truth, Micah had been at her side since his teens, helping pick up the threads and connect them.

"He'd know," Anakin agreed, a corner of his mouth turning up again at that pride in Qui-Gon's voice. 

"May the Force stay with you," Qui-Gon said as he made to leave. Ky would be free soon, and they had plans to do some more work on the archive expansion, to have ready for Tahl's return.

* * *

Ahsoka arriving with a child was nothing new; she had found a few children that the Order had never known about because of listening to stories in places she had traveled. 

Anakin was certain he'd never seen her bring back one this small before, one that was near human, with pale skin and silver-white hair. Ahsoka had some visible bandages, having left in her fighting clothes and armor, but she had the child tucked on her hip as if she felt no pain.

Anakin heard her say something in a language that was sibilant and soft, one he did not speak but had heard her curse in once or twice. The child turned to look at him, and vivid blue eyes looked out of a face that was too thin for the age, hunger lurking in the lines in a way all too familiar to him despite being a lifetime and more away from the hungry days of a displeased master. The child couldn't even be half Obi-Wan's size, but she clung to Ahsoka fiercely despite appraising him.

"I had the time more right than I thought," Ahsoka said. "She'd only been there a few months, thank Force."

"Hey, Snips," Anakin said, smiling at her, before he dropped to one knee, straight-backed, to be even with the little one. "And hello to you, little one. Welcome to our home. Do you understand Basic?" 

There were worlds where it wasn't taught at all, he knew, and Snips had used another language first. 

The child considered, staring at him for a long moment, before speaking. "Yes."

" 'Saj, this is Anakin," Ahsoka said evenly. "Skyguy, this is Asajj." She looked down at the girl, who immediately looked up at her in response to the attention. "Anakin is the one I said taught me. He is my best friend and partner. You can trust him. He understands a lot of what you have dealt with the last several months."

Asajj. Ventress. This tiny little girl was... no. She wasn't. She was never going to be. Anakin smiled at her, as welcoming as he could. "It's good to meet you, Asajj." He offered her one hand, carefully. 

Asajj eyed the hand, then looked up, again, at Ahsoka before deciding to accept the greeting being offered. She put her hand in his and he could feel his padawan's lingering Force energies having recently healed the child.

It didn't take much to know they had been depriving and abusing her to try and break her.

"Going to convert that space we've been throwing our extra gear in to be a room for her," Ahsoka said. She did not think putting her directly in with the other children would go so well, and after what she and the other Asajj had shared, she felt a kin tie to her.

Anakin shook hands solemnly, then let go gently, and looked up at his padawan. "That sounds fine," he agreed. "I'll come lend a hand with that," he added, and stood back up. 

Ahsoka breathed out, and he felt a wave of relief roll off of her. She had known this might be hard on him, but she could not leave Asajj there when Ky Narec had better not ever get himself lost in that region of space.

They went to tackle making a place for the girl, and move forward with yet another key change to the future they wanted to avoid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note from Merfilly: I know Asajj is said to have dark hair but… I prefer the silver. Call it authorial indulgence.


	5. Moving Along Toward a Goal

_Fewer Jedi to defend against, and it made a rich family's scion consider the end game most carefully. Centuries upon centuries had maneuvered toward this point, and the Force itself was making things easier? Yes, he would learn all he could from the one he called Master, and then it would be his privilege to destroy the hated enemy at long last._

_After that, the galaxy would kneel at his feet._

* * *

"Things we do know," Areen began, standing at the front of all their active Knights. "The Naboo is the known Sith for certain. Several of you have tracked the purchase or theft of devices, literature, and art known or suspected to be Sith related. The Naboo has made contact with a surviving Sith, most likely of Darth Bane's line, as its extinction was never confirmed, but the records on other factions are more concrete."

"Records can be forged," Tahl pointed out. "But I concede that the line of Bane is the most likely one."

Areen afforded the historian of their group a nod for that interjection. "Based on the Naboo's movements and influences, we are now fairly certain that the Muun he has interacted with most frequently is the most likely suspect. The Muun has an extensive holding of interests, many of which we have now traced to influencing events that we had already investigated as possible manipulations."

"Being a Muun has impeded many of our investigations," Micah said at that point. "It is hard to interpret documents we do acquire, and his interests are cloaked in secrecy native to his species."

"They are, however, growing bolder in the manipulations," Qui-Gon picked up. "Djinn Altis, after I spoke to him, has encouraged his followers to be even more circumspect on their numbers. The Guardians of the Whills have agreed it is needed to appear to be on the decline."

"The Sages of Dorin have drawn back into their sanctuaries," Plo reported. "Their appraisal of current events goes along with a long ago foreseen cataclysm in the Force." 

Fulcrum nodded at that; gaining admission to be taught by them when she had been young had given her much of their view of galactic events.

"I was able to speak to the Green Jedi of Corellia on my last visit there," Ky said. "They are not interested in reducing their visible number at all, but have also moved more toward an insular viewpoint, focusing on Corellian interests alone."

"And, as Tyvokka brought word to us, the Republic is taking note of the reduced Jedi numbers, due to our own recruitment of so many of the younglings found since we began," Areen finished. "Reducing the suffering of others, in discreet fashion, is needed, as we try and unmask the pair as the author of so many miseries." She looked to the Wookiee in question, who nodded.

[From the Temple side, we decided to try one direct investigation where the Muun was thought to be residing. Neither Knight assigned ever returned, and both of their Masters are fairly certain the pair were killed.]

That brought a heaviness to the air. The Praxeum Jedi considered themselves part of the Order still, merely a branch that was very focused on Sith hunting. They did not want their fellow Jedi dying like that.

"Others," Zydre said, speaking up, "have vanished in the Outer Rim, never to return, nor to come to us, as some have been instructed to do by the Order. It must be presumed that there are Sith strongholds, even yet, in the Rim, places where they can prep for the final battle they seek to put into place."

"The strongholds may be Outer Rim, but we can assure you -- from what we experienced -- that the Mid Rim is not all that safe or even friendly to the Jedi or the Republic, even if they are members," Fulcrum said. "Areen?"

Areen obliged and showed an outer view of the known galaxy. She then adjusted it, and several systems turned green, some turned blue, and many turned orange. 

"The green systems remained utterly uninvolved, neutral, or are unknown to us," Fulcrum said. "Blue ones never had their loyalty questioned in the war. The orange ones? Those all either did secede or strongly supported the secession from the Republic. Those worlds, I believe, have been under Sith influence for a very long time, so that the moment would be ripe for their plan."

Anakin nodded his agreement with that assessment. "Or at least, their leadership has been," he said, thinking about some of the anti-Imperial rebellions on those worlds. He looked around, and most of the Jedi looked very distressed, seeing the swath of orange systems and the way they were scattered through such a broad range of the Republic's sectors. 

"What do we do in the face of this?" Ima asked, frowning in a way that made his face spines more noticeable than ever.

"We start targeting these systems for investigation," Micah said. "Discreet surveillance to determine the likely Sith agents. Fulcrum and Anakin have pinpointed these systems," and the map changed, fading all but a handful of systems out, "as key to the final plans. All of our training to go unnoticed, especially the training that Elder Fisto of Glee Anselm has provided, will be needed."

Qui-Gon, having already been informed he was not allowed to investigate the Serenno System, given his childhood adoration of Dooku, studied the map, then nodded. "Find the likely agents, then we trace them backwards, as we did with the Naboo to his Muun?"

"Exactly," Areen said, granting him a nod.

"We have a few suggestions about that," Anakin said, "likely people, I mean. We'll give them to whoever gets their particular system. You all know this is going to be slow, frustrating, and difficult, but we believe in each of you." 

The group of Jedi, some that he had known as Masters to be avoided, feared, or just disdained as he grew up in the Temple, straightened under that encouragement, just like his men had done once upon a time. Part of the Praxeum approach had been to accept emotional bonds, to understand that people needed ties to sanity that sometimes involved other people. Not a single Jedi on this world could ever feel completely alone and vulnerable. 

That they all looked to him, to Ahsoka, and to Areen as their mentors and guides was sometimes staggering.

[Rotations to continue to share your skills here with the young will happen, as well as to insure all information learned is shared here, for our analysts to break down,] Tyvokka said. [I will not be traveling much. For some reason, people always remember me if they've met me before.]

That got laughter, especially from Ahsoka, who knew how rare it was for a Wookiee to be a Jedi. It wasn't that they felt the Force less than others; it was their societal structure. Much like Togruta, they tended toward clan ties more.

"I can't imagine why, Master," Anakin said, laughing as well. "It's a good thing we have so many humans -- and near-humans, Tahl, yes -- for things like this." 

"Though sometimes," Zydre said wryly, "a less typical near-human slips through the background easily."

"Agreed," Vixard agreed, though they did not often leave H'ratth, unless it was to go explore some archive Qui-Gon or Tahl had managed to find among another species or Force tradition.

Areen waited for the amusement at that to die down, then spoke to bring the meeting to a close. "Assignments will go out to your personal comms by nightfall. Please abide by your timelines, though do not hesitate to return early in case of suspicion. If you absolutely must stay late… please try and convey that to those you maintain bonded links with."

"Yes, Master Jepet!" many of them called out to her, accustomed to taking the assignments from her, even if Fulcrum and Anakin ran the Praxeum. That suited both of them; they were giving guidance but keeping their direct actions limited, for fear of tipping off the Sith to the counter-movements.

* * *

Anakin woke with the remnants of a little child's laughter in his mind, a girl's laughter, bright and delighted and high -- full of joy, uninhibited. For the first few moments, he thought he'd been dreaming of Leia, the daughter he'd so brutally wounded, all unknowing, but then the place he'd seen around her swum back into his mind's eyes... and he knew that home, knew it with a sudden fierce, useless longing. 

Padmé. 

Padmé was alive. Maybe not as old as he'd heard, but... she was alive, and the Force had told him.

Ahsoka, who had been sleeping beside him, roused at the rapid-fire surging of emotion in him. He was her partner, the one person who could understand her completely, and she tried so hard to take care of him. Emotional whipsawing was dangerous with him, and so she opened her eyes to look at him, hand already reaching for his on the bed.

He caught her hand in his, gently, and opened his eyes to look at her, trying to dig a smile out of his aching chest. "Padmé," he said, softly. "I... heard her. Saw through her eyes, just for a second. I didn't think about it before, but... she's alive." 

Alive, alive, alive... a little girl, barely more than a baby, but alive now. Safe with a family that loved and supported her against everything, secure on a world he still thought of as a paradise. 

That made Ahsoka's lips curve into a smile, even as her eyes and lekku showed that she knew how hard that could be. She moved, careful of her montrals, and rested her head on his shoulder. Much as she usually complained about humans being entirely too hot, she did like cuddling for small periods of time.

He needed those right now, in her opinion.

"Well, good. Little you is going to need her someday."

"Yeah," Anakin agreed, entirely, "he sure is. I mean... I guess it's possible they might not? But... I knew I was for her before I knew anything else about the Force. I didn't even know what a lake was, not really, and I saw a flash of our wedding."

Ahsoka rested a hand on his chest, and just let herself be wide open to him, encouraging him to share that time with her if he wanted. "I think some things are meant to be. I just want them to happen without so much dying around everything."

Anakin ducked his head enough to press a kiss to one montral, light and affectionate, and cast his mind a lifetime back, looking for the memory to share with her. "Me too, Snips. Me, too." 

Their bond was more than deep enough to allow them to share things fully. For all that life had wedged them apart so long, the time here had proven the initial relationship had been forged strongly. She closed her eyes as the image of the Senator in her finery, the beautiful lake countryside, even the droids both shining so bright unfolded for her.

"Beautiful, Skyguy."

"She really was," Anakin agreed, smiling at the top of her head, relaxing a little more for having gotten to share that. Then he blinked. "Right, remind me -- when we go to Tatooine -- to make sure I dig up all of Threepio's parts out of the scrap heap before we leave."

Ahsoka giggled. "Okay, because I don't want to have to watch Artoo flirt with every protocol droid he meets, looking for the right one," she teased. "That can't be too far away now, is it? Not if she's alive."

Anakin picked up his free hand and wobbled it back and forth, sighing. "She's five years older than me," he answered, "but I'm not sure if Mom was on Tatooine before I was born, right after, or... what. I know we were there by the time I was three."

"Alright then. That will still make you younger than 'Saj was when I went for her, so good." She slowly moved free of him so she could stretch. "Ready to tackle teaching today?" she asked, half-grinning as she offered him something to distract.

Anakin shook his head slightly, thinking of the sharp-tongued, clever girl that so confounded most of the Jedi with the way she understood (and didn't understand) the Force. Some things were so simple for Saj. Others challenged her very much. And... what was he even going to be like, without the trauma of six conscious years of enslavement coloring all of his perceptions? Was there any way he would even recognize that child by the time he was ten as someone he could have been? 

He shook off those thoughts, and rolled his eyes heavenward at the question instead. The younglings were so often challenging, but a corner of his mouth quirked up. "Yeah, I guess so..." 

She laughed and headed for their 'fresher to get cleaned up for a long day. Saj would be waiting at her own door any minute now, to tackle more lessons. That kept Ahsoka nicely occupied, when her hands itched to go after Palpatine directly during her quiet moments. She was pretty sure Skyguy felt the same, but they both were relying on so much secrecy to build a force of Jedi that could, and would, be strong enough to handle the Sith Crisis.

* * *

Tahl did not actually appreciate being in the hottest place in her personal history of exploration. This was not even a good place to dig up useful information about the Sith! 

Yet, when Fulcrum asked her to come, explaining that there was a small boy, brilliantly strong in the Force, and his mother, she'd been intrigued. Then Anakin himself had briefed her more fully, advising her on ways to take advantage of Gardulla's vices to win free the pair.

And she'd been sworn to secrecy on the biggest secret of the Praxeum's entire existence. Not against her crechemates, but against all others. While they had figured out that both of the founders had lived, somehow, through the war they saw coming, the pair had never actually explained who they were in relation to the crisis.

But now... now she knew. This little child she was going to retrieve had once grown into their teacher. It vaguely made her head ache. 

Then there was the fact that he had come with her, when he almost never left the Praxeum -- and he was blatantly unhappy about the sand, sun, heat, and people. But he was here, nonetheless. And off to a scrapyard? Why, she wondered, but didn't ask. 

"I have a friend to find," he said, despite that she hadn't asked at all, and strode off. 

"Right, Tahl. Time-tossed or not, he's still just a sentient," she chided herself for the surprise at such a thing, before setting off to set herself up as the hottest gambler in the galaxy.

* * *

It had been, as Anakin promised, easy. After all, a Toydarian had apparently gotten the better of the Hutt once before.

She just wasn't thinking about the most powerful being in the Praxeum having begun as a slave. She couldn't. She knew human psychology pretty well, and knew that would have scarred the boy.

Now, she stood next to a speeder and watched the human pair approaching her. The child knew little fear, but he was so small and young. The woman, on the other hand, was very wary, and Tahl could not blame her, so she reached up to drop the face mask that was part of her garb, letting it hang to one side of her hood, revealing her Noorian features.

"If you would please climb in?" she said, her voice carrying no farther than the pair. The boy clambered in, all excitement for a new adventure, even if they had been sold away. Gardulla could be mean to mom; maybe this person wouldn't be.

"Yes, mistress," Shmi answered even as her head tipped slightly, studying the woman's features. At least it was a woman that had won them -- not that women couldn't be every bit as awful as men, but for some things it at least took more work -- this time. And she had accepted Ani too. Some would not have wanted a child too young to be useful. She'd been terrified of that since the moment Gardulla had realized Ani existed. But they were still together, at least for now. She climbed into the speeder, carefully, and restrained her son with one arm. 

"Mom," came the token protest, and Tahl could not help but smile. She took off more sedately than Plo or Ky would have, and headed back for the main port. Once they were a bit away from Gardulla's estate, Tahl glanced over. 

"Please be at peace," she said. "As soon as I can handle the transmitters safely, I will deactivate the devices, and we shall see them removed. You are neither one slaves any longer."

"...what?" Shmi asked, after a frozen second of complete incomprehension, certain she must have heard the woman wrong. That just... didn't happen. She had hoped it would, once, but she'd learned better. No master's word was worth anything. The other woman sounded sincere, but Shmi simply couldn't believe it. 

Ani looked up at his mother, then over at the other woman, noticing how bright and warm she seemed to him.

"Milady, I am a Jedi. I have no wish to see anyone enslaved, and look forward to the day our focus can be on ending that for more systems." Tahl concentrated, and her lightsaber hilt floated up out of her boot sheath for it. She held it up, handless, in the middle between them. "See?"

Shmi Skywalker had been born on a mid-Rim world, to relatively wealthy parents. She had had more than enough access to the HoloNet as a child to know a lightsaber when she saw one -- and while anyone could carry one of the things, the kind of Force ability it required to move an object so casually, especially while doing two other things... she gasped, softly. "A... Jedi," she murmured, watching the other woman. "Here." 

"Like the stories, Mom?" Anakin asked, staring between the floating thing and his Mom, amazed. 

At Shmi's faint nod, Tahl smiled more brightly. "You, little one, have the ability to become one if you choose. We can talk about that once we have you both taken care of, though. And before you ask, Milady, the Force is a mysterious thing that allowed us to have knowledge of you and your son. 

"It was deemed best if one of us ladies came for you but I assure you, when we get to our world, you will be treated with nothing but respect for the sanctity of your persons, or I'll invite the offender into a salle and remind them of our basic tenets."

Shmi couldn't help smiling at the sharply edged tone of the woman's voice, almost laughing. She could imagine that this woman would do such a thing with very little provocation. She considered the idea of her Ani a Jedi, and thought she liked it. Then something else occurred to her, and she wondered if she still had the daring to say what she'd thought, even to a Jedi. 

Well, she might as well test now, and take what came. "If you mean to free us... shouldn't you _ask_ where we want to go? And a name would be nice, as well." 

Tahl actually let the lightsaber fall, covering her mouth in abashment. "I am terribly sorry, Milady! Jedi Knight Tahl. And yes, I totally failed in asking if you would come, learn of our ways in order to give your son a chance to see what he could become!

"I promise I did mean it only as a stopping point, and that papers and other places would be arranged at your wish!"

The pure shock and horrified embarrassment that showed on the woman -- Tahl, her name was Tahl -- and the half-frantic apology and assurance suddenly... snapped something in Shmi's chest. Or at least, that was the closest explanation for how she felt Shmi could come up with. It was like something that had been almost choking her for so long she'd forgotten what breathing freely felt like had broken, like she had a new set of lungs, like -- 

oh, she didn't know. 

But for the first time in most of twenty years, Shmi Skywalker actually believed freedom was something she -- and far more importantly, Ani -- was going to have. She found herself laughing, holding Ani even tighter. "I'd be a fool not to accept, Knight Tahl. Thank you. Oh, Force, thank you!" 

"There really is no need to thank us at all," Tahl promised. "Any of my siblings or the others would have come! We just needed to know, and be able to break away from duties." She recalled her lightsaber to her boot, and then looked over, unsurprised to see Ani was … both smiling and shedding unnoticed tears in reaction to his mother's emotions.

Given how strong in the Force Anakin was, she was not a bit astounded at the boy reacting so keenly to the woman that had been his world's center.

Shmi shook her head. "You're wrong, Tahl, but I won't argue it with you. I wish there was more you could do -- I left friends behind in that manor -- but... I understand the economics. Unfortunately." 

"So do we," Tahl said grimly. "Those worlds where slavery was once entrenched and are free now have only varying success rates. Some replaced slavery with other things that can be worse. Others held true to the course, but in all cases, it meant changing -- I'm sorry.

"I'm the historian of my batch, and my focus is on socio-political movements," she said, a little sheepishly.

"That's quite all right," Shmi said, smiling at her, "I haven't had a truly educated conversation in... years." 

That brought a smile to Tahl's features too. "I look forward to the pleasure of it… should you choose to remain with us."

"We will see," Shmi agreed -- but she was already almost certain that she would.

* * *

Anakin clucked to the eopie dragging the load of battered, broken scrap parts of his oldest friend on a sled, encouraging it up the down cargo ramp rather than wind up using the Force to move the load. They didn't need that attention. 

It had taken several hours, and some meditation, before he had actually been able to drag events from so many decades ago up to the front of his mind. He'd searched the scrap twice, even after the excursion through his memories, just to be sure, before he'd left. (He'd also considered stuffing Watto face-down into the nearest cistern until he drowned, but the Toydarian hadn't had any slaves to his name, so he'd let him live.) 

A speeder was approaching, one that held three people in it… and he now understood all the times Ahsoka had teased him about being a sun. That small child, to someone who could feel it, radiated the Force. More shockingly to his adult mind, was that not only could he feel his own Knight in that speeder… but the third person as well.

He could feel his _mother_ \-- /Mom, Mom's alive, of course she is, but -- // -- in the Force. Not as simply a sentient presence, but... she had the Force. She had the Force _herself_, she'd had it all along, he had just never known. 

He'd thought everyone always knew where their mother was, a little of how she felt. 

He closed his eyes as he nudged the stubborn beast on up, focusing on reinforcing his shields, his calm. He opened them as the beast stopped deep enough in the hold for what he wanted, and swung off it to begin unpacking the sled. If he was doing something, maybe he could keep from making a complete idiot out of himself. 

"Alright, Lady Skywalker. Young Ani," Tahl said as she stopped near the ship, loud enough to be heard, "this is the real live starship we will be leaving in."

"So wizard!" a very high-pitched, excited voice answered.

Karking haran, he'd actually sounded like that? Anakin shook his head, and kept to moving the pieces into the container he'd rigged -- and to using the meditation techniques Snips had finally taught him to hold his presence in rather than radiate out, trying to stay calm. 

"Now, if you both will come aboard. I'd like to get you both to the med berth and see to things," Tahl said.

"Of course," Shmi said, her voice quiet but strong with self-awareness.

Hearing Mom's voice made his hand -- the left, away from them, hidden by his body -- tighten into a fist on the container. She sounded so calm and strong and well, not relaxed, but not afraid either, and it ached. 

He'd almost entirely forgotten the sound of her voice. 

He heard a child's footsteps up the decking, and then a startled, "Eopie? On a _starship_?" 

Tahl paused, then looked at Ani. "My teacher had things to acquire, young Ani," she said. "It's most practical to not show off the use of the Force when you can do so."

"To avoid drawing unwanted attentions?" Shmi reasoned.

"Indeed."

"Oh," Ani said, then, "is that your teacher?" 

Oh, kark it, he'd hoped Tahl would keep them moving and he'd have a little more time... he turned, trying not to too obviously take a deep breath as he did. 

"Yes, Ani, but he is very busy right now," Tahl pointed out.

"Ani, we should let the man work," Shmi guided gently, managing the look toward Anakin without letting her attention linger… or letting the fear of a human male rise above her awareness she was safe.

Anakin looked at her, seeing the beautiful face he remembered... and then it hit him that he was older than she was and it rocked him back on his heels for a moment. Of course he was, he'd have to be, but it... was just wrong. "Welcome, Lady Skywalker. Ani. Tahl will take good care of you both." 

"She certainly has been, Master Jedi," Shmi said, reaching for Ani's hand. The boy was already moving, a synchronicity that made so much sense now. "There will be time later to meet all the new ones," she told her small son.

Anakin dipped his head, and smiled at the boy. "There certainly will. I'll see you both later." 

She was here, she was going to be safe, he'd be able to _keep_ her safe this time... 

Tahl led her charges on, taking them to see to all the necessary medical things and get them settled in before Anakin got them ready to leave.

* * *

Ani and Shmi were in a cabin, small as it was on this ship, by the time Anakin had them in hyperspace. Tahl had come into the cockpit, and now handed over a steaming cup of the spicy cocoa Fulcrum tended to serve.

"Are you holding up well?" she asked, even though she was so much younger than him. It felt right to ask, to make certain he was not adrift by this mission. She was very surprised Fulcrum hadn't come. Even if it meant both of them off H'ratth, surely this was the kind of thing the partners needed to lean on each other for?

Then again, she had left to go get Saj all on her own, and Tahl had picked up that there had been complicated emotions there. She'd even seen Fulcrum shed tears of joy when Ky had struck up a bond with Saj. Now, she suspected that was one of the pieces of the time that Fulcrum and Anakin had already lived that was meant to be.

Anakin turned towards her, taking the cup from her, and considered the question. "I... think so. I had all this time to get used to the idea -- and of everything, it's that I'm older than my mother that is throwing me most. Ridiculous." 

"I don't think it is ridiculous," Tahl told him. "What you are doing, as we slowly piece together just how many manipulations are out there of the Sith, what that must mean for all you and Fulcrum saw… lived through, really… it's staggering. So, to have one thing like this really throw you off?

"That just seems to prove you really are just a sapient being like all the rest of us," she said, quirking a small smile at him. "I like her, by the way. She's strong and kind, my favorite type of person."

"Oh," Anakin said, quiet and dry, "I promise I'm only mortal -- even if Snips and I are aging slowly. But... thank you. And I'm glad. Mom was... a lot wiser than I knew, when I was little, and I thought she was pretty wise then. I hope you two can stay friendly, be friends. 

"She was friends with a lot of the women in the Quarters, as much as it was safe to be." 

"I'll look after her, much as I can," Tahl promised. "We'll get home, and she'll see H'ratth is a good place to be for her and Ani." She then grinned. "You did a lot of growing."

"Yeah," Anakin admitted, shaking his head a little. "I always wanted to match Master Qui-Gon's height. Never quite got there, though." 

Not before he was Vader, anyway, and that didn't count. 

That made Tahl's mouth quirk more; she and Qui-Gon and Ky were a loose, non-exclusive triad of Attachment. "Obi-Wan was your teacher," she said as that realization hit with her awareness of how often she'd seen Anakin watching Qui work with the young man. "Something in how you said Qui's name… he's in your line, and it makes you happy he teaches Obi, so… yes?"

"Yes," Anakin agreed, to both the questions she was asking. "He was Obi-Wan's Master, and my Finder. He pushed the Council as hard as he could for me to be taught, despite that I was way too old." 

"That clears up that," Tahl told him. "You and Ahsoka, when you do go and bring back students, they tend to be older than the Temple ones were when they started there," she clarified at his look. "You proved there's no such thing as too-old, apparently."

"Sort of," Anakin answered, thinking about all the ways he really hadn't, all the ways he'd been doomed from the beginning because the Council had let that man slowly twist his mind to madness. "Or at least I proved why having the ones like me in the Temple is better than leaving them to Sith hands."

The gold eyes searched him over, her keen mind catching a nuance, but she chose not to say anything directly. "That is a good point. And most of them, like those AgriCorps that came when we were kids, have proven to be strong in different ways of using the Force.

"That's the goal, isn't it? To explore the Force and find ways the Sith can't anticipate? So that when it comes out in the open, we can decisively defeat them and then tackle the ills of the Republic that they have exploited?"

"Partially," Anakin agreed, nodding to her. "It is. But it's also... the Temple was broken, badly, centuries ago. Part of what we're doing with the Praxeum is," he paused for a moment, "trying to find better ways to support everyone that has the Force and wants to help people. Not locking it away to just the few that meet a bunch of criteria at various points." 

That… fit solidly against the cooperative efforts in teaching and learning alike. It made sense of why Force Adepts were encouraged to learn, even if they never mastered the higher uses of the Force. The focus on support made it clear why attachments were not to be feared or distrusted, but carefully nurtured and spread out, to keep them from becoming obsessive.

"I like what we are. I can work with a Temple-trained Jedi, and I can work with an Altisian, but I think they both lack the fullness of what we've got," she said. "I just hope that when we take the Sith down, the others are willing to adapt too."

"So do I," Anakin said, "to both, actually."


	6. And So It Begins

_On a planet called Dathomir, a woman schemed, thinking to ally to the growing power in the Darkness. One small thing balked her; the one she sought to partner with was certain that he, and he alone, would be more than strong enough to finally curtail the Jedi, to end them. They were growing so weak, as their numbers dwindled. All he needed was to manufacture the right events, and they would be at his mercy. He needed no one, not even the master that had no idea how numbered his days were growing._

* * *

Fulcrum was in the middle of leading a class on using personal telekinesis on the obstacle course, helping their latest students learn how to jump and fall and run with the Force to assist. Anakin was spotting for them, more than quick enough to grab and protect any of them from a potential bad fall.

All of this was relayed to Micah via Plo as the human hurried from the landing field, not even waiting to see his ship taxied into the hangar, as his news was just what Fulcrum had been asking for the last few years. He went to the observer platform, rather than potentially upset the younglings, and stood beside Anakin.

"I have news, but I know she doesn't believe in breaking into class time if it can be helped," Micah said by way of explanation. "They're near the end; it will keep until they are done."

"All right," Anakin said, his curiosity sparking high and intent, but he wouldn't ask Micah to tell the news twice. So, despite his inclinations and in defiance of what any of these people would have thought a lifetime ago, he waited. "I'm glad to see you back." 

"It was … hmm, let's go with interesting, and don't tell my creche-mates I said it," Micah said, grinning a little. He then watched the young ones below them. "Is that little Ani helping the ones at the very end?" he asked, certain it was, but knowing it pleased Anakin to hear others notice Ani.

"Of course," Anakin agreed, turning to smile at him for just a moment before his attention went back to making sure all of the younglings were safe. "He's getting good at this." 

That, of course, was an understatement. Supported and safe, young Ani Skywalker was learning how to be in tune with the Force, to use it consciously, at a rate even Anakin was surprised by. 

"He's a good help to the new students arriving from the Temple, and those from other places," Micah complimented. "Master Areen has been thankful for his ability to divert the others in the larger classes."

He watched as Fulcrum paused to go and adjust one of the non-oxygen breathing student's protective gear, and it made him think of his mate fondly. How many times when they had been young had the gear been an issue?

"She has?" Anakin cocked his head, "well... good." Something else that was so very different than his past. Something better. 

"Of course, she sees a bit more of him than some, given Lady Shmi." 

Areen had taken it upon herself, as the nominal administrator of the Praxeum, to help Shmi find a place in its structure. That had led to a friendship, and a working partnership because of specialized knowledge Shmi turned out to have. Shmi's conscious use of the Force was slowly coming along under Areen's patient tutelage as well.

"I never would have expected that," Anakin admitted, and smiled, "but I never did know Master Jepet very well." 

"Before we came here, I had been fairly certain she would be my Master," Micah said. "And she did devote a good bit of time to me here. The ability to choose ones mentors and mentees with less pressure to make a full training bond… I think it helps. 

"As children and teens, we are always adapting, and a match made at eleven might not fit at sixteen. By allowing us all to choose who we do accept bonds with, there is less pressure to be certain it does work, even when the people grow apart."

They could see the last pair of younglings were at the final obstacle, with Fulcrum coaxing them past their wary disbelief that the Force would see them over it.

"Snips and I think so -- even though I wouldn't give up having had her as my padawan for the entire galaxy," Anakin agreed, slow and soft. "But then... she was almost all I _had_. None of you are ever going to know what that's like, if we have anything to say about it." 

Micah studied him a moment, still amused by that nickname that slipped in, and her 'Skyguy' at him. The two were so close that it was sometimes jarring to be reminded they had begun as Master and Apprentice, yet Micah had learned the age gap was very minute.

"No, we won't be. The strength of Attachments has helped us over the years, as groups lost pieces, because the bonds are many, not few."

Anakin nodded, this time, because that had happened. Not often, not a lot, but what they did, what they hunted, was so dangerous. They'd lost people. People he cared about. But they'd mourned together, and kept each other going. "Yeah," he murmured, soft. 

A cheer broke out among the younglings as both the last two took a running leap and scaled the pair of pillars to go over the wall at the end. Fulcrum was smiling and laughing, before she indicated the Knight waiting there could take them all in for the meal, her face turning up toward Anakin once the Knight had the younglings in hand. She took note of Micah with them, and took up a jog to go over.

Anakin applauded the younglings too, proud of their accomplishment, and then waited for Snips to get to them. "Obviously," he said dryly, "Micah has news." 

"So I do," Micah said, as Fulcrum leaned on the rail of the observation point. "It's about the bounty hunters."

Fulcrum's easy stance evaporated, and Micah added that as one more point that they were close to the end goal. She rarely let such things show quite that strongly.

"I did catch wind of an organized attempt to pit them against each other and some task, with a ridiculous bounty being offered. Several very strong ones did vanish off their usual paths to go attempt it.

"What I learned is someone has accomplished it, but the identity is hushed up, due to the nature of the prize, apparently," Micah reported.

Fulcrum looked at Anakin, her lekku flicking in agitation as she tried to find words. He wasn't much help, because he'd gone taught and tense himself as Micah's words slid home. The men, their beloved troops, Snips' boys -- Rex / Fives-and-Echo / Wolffe / Oddball / Cody / Gree / Waxer-and-Boil / Cutup / Atti / Bly / Vil / Dogma / Fox -- he jerked himself out of the rapid-fire litany and took a breath. The men were going to exist, still, somehow, despite everything they'd changed, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to sob with relief or curse with rage. 

They deserved so much better, so _much_ **better**, and he had no idea in the galaxy even after all this time how they were going to provide it, how they could make this come out to the ruin of the Sith without abandoning them to years of the Kaminoans. 

Fulcrum swallowed hard. Such a long life and yet… her boys. Her brothers. The men that taught her so much. The men that had protected her, bled and died under her command. She had not allowed herself to hope they would come to be.

"Karking hells," she said hoarsely. "Well, at least we know the di'kut doesn't seem to deviate from his plans that much."

She missed them all over again, missed Rex's calm and measured guidance.

"Yeah," Anakin breathed, as his left hand wrapped around hers and clung. "I... okay. Okay, damn it, we can deal with this. Just have to do some brainstorming, right?" 

"We," and Micah meant the group that was himself and his creche-mates, "will be glad to help you with this, whatever it is."

"I know you will, Micah, and it might come down to it," Fulcrum promised him. "For now, Anakin and I have to think it over, to see where we are in the overall plan."

Micah nodded, then bowed to them and left, going to find Plo and spend time with his beloved partner in all things. 

Anakin brushed affection and reliance and relief after him, grateful for the offer and the support, before he turned fully to Snips and leaned to lay his forehead against hers. "I didn't dare..." 

"I knew we had to know," Fulcrum said softly. "Even as I didn't know which way to hope." Personally, she wanted the men back in her life. More objectively, their entire creation had been a heinous crime against sapient beings. "Micah was told what signs to look for, but not why."

She closed her eyes, resting there like that with him, letting the weight of it fall fully around them. "I think we have to start the endgame, Anakin. I think we need to make Kamino our opening gambit against the Sith."

"You're right, of course," he agreed, leaning into her and supporting her at once. "We can't leave them there, and the minute we move, we tip our hand. So."

"Let's… let's take today to just meditate on it, and see if the Force agrees. It's not like we can move on them for a few years, not unless we move to stop the project completely," she pointed out.

"I... I can't do that, Snips. I can't kill them. Free them, help them find themselves, absolutely, but..." he trailed off, shaking his head a little. "Meditate, yeah. And no, of course we can't move before they can help take care of themselves." 

Ahsoka pressed into his arms, a touch of that small, untried padawan coming through in the moment as she sought comfort. "I can't either, Skyguy. I had to leave it to the path of fate, but… I want my brothers back. I want -- 

"-- oh kriff, I completely spaced out on the fact I am alive and making daddy's life stressful! But if the project is in place, it's pretty close to when Plo would have come to Find me!" 

She had started to say she wanted her younger self to know the amazing vod'e culture, but they hadn't actually gone and Found her yet.

"I guess we'd better do something about that, too, then," Anakin said, laughing at her sudden shocked realization. "Any thoughts on how?" 

She shook her head, then sighed. "Let Shaak be the one to go ask for her?" she suggested. "Really was getting to be a handful. I'd mastered the jump and landing unconsciously, so it made me hard to keep where I was put."

"Alright," Anakin replied, nodding. "That should work. Hopefully they'll be willing to trust her with their little one, even with as long as she's been gone." 

"She's got personality. We'll be lucky if my mother doesn't offer to kinfast her," Ahsoka said with a smirk. "Come on, Skyguy. I'm not fit company for other people, so let's get out of the common areas." She sent a firm 'do not disturb' at her own personal student, so that Saj would find other pursuits for the rest of the day.

* * *

The council with the elder masters and those Knights most aware of the truth of their mission was… terrifying and sobering all at once for everyone. Even Anakin and Fulcrum, relaying all of the events that began at Naboo, were beaten down by just what they were seeking to avoid.

Micah, as expected, was chewing over the aspects of what they had known versus the shape of what they had changed.

"Naboo is unlikely to be invaded," he said. "That is not the focus of the Trade Federation. But, something must come to pass to bring that man to full power, and something else must happen for those troops to ever come into use.

"What will those events be, and how do we mitigate the impact, that is our question now."

"Skyguy? Do you think he'll go for an outright assassination attempt on Coruscant itself?" Fulcrum asked. "Destabilize the Senate and swoop in as their savior? While painting the assassins as part of this conspiracy against them?"

Anakin considered that, slowly turning it over in his mind, testing it against what he knew of his one-time puppet-master, and finally shook his head a little. "I... don't think so. That's... too direct, for him. At this kind of stage, anyway. He'd want other people to put him forward, not to be seen actively Doing Something." 

"Okay, then… oh no." Fulcrum looked at Tyvokka. "How secure is the Temple?"

[It should be… you think he will arrange matters so that they take an attack, or the blame for one failing?]

"Either way might work for him, depending on how it is spun," Micah said.

"Yet, based on everything else profiled here today," Areen cautioned, "I don't think he wants to discredit the Order too quickly. Even with the numbers we have pulled away from them, it is still a large institution, and well-thought of in the Core, if not the Mid-Rim."

"Then an attack on the Temple, one designed to bring sympathy to them, while also showing that the Enemy," Qui-Gon reasoned, "is able to strike that deep. Set up a bit of hysteria that pushes the Senate to overturning the military policies bit by bit, until there is a war."

"But who is the enemy to be?" Tahl asked. "The groups you mentioned all have their own issues with one another. What will be the catalyst to make them become the other side of a galactic civil war?" 

Anakin tapped his fingertips against the tabletop, considering, wishing for insight, for a better understanding of what had built the war up the last time. "What's going on in depths of Senate legislation that could make them all feel under threat? If not immediately, then soon." 

Tyvokka considered. [I shall be in communication with my last Foundling then, to learn such.] Kit Fisto had excelled in political theory and debate, leading to Tyvokka slipping him back into the Temple under the guise of coming from the Altisian sect. Master Yoda knew he, like a few other Knights, were Praxeum-trained, despite the cover stories that Master Djinn Altis helped perpetuate as the only member of his sect aware of the efforts in place.

"I can probably handle that, Master Tyvokka," Plo said. "I will be taking some of this to the Sages, and can make a close enough circuit to mind-speak my younger brother."

"Then, we will wait for what he knows, before planning the next step," Fulcrum said. "Unless someone has objections?"

Anakin had none, and as he looked around, he didn't see anyone that did. "Sounds good to me. I don't like even more waiting, but..." he shrugged. 

"We cannot move until we are certain we can protect those children and handle our responsibility to the Force, to keep this from being a bloodbath," Areen said firmly. "And so we shall wait for Kit's appraisal of the Senate, and then reconvene to chart our course."

Fulcrum nodded, then slipped an arm around Saj's shoulders. "How about you try to wear me out in the salle, student of mine?" she invited, needing to move, to do, even if she knew waiting was needed.

Saj smiled brightly, sharply, and went to help do just that.

* * *

It wasn't Naboo. Naboo just got caught in the middle.

The Republic was faced with a rise in piracy that attacked ships and melted away, all along their borders, with systems pointing fingers in every direction they could think of.

The Trade Federation offered 'protection', for a better cut of the profits from intergalactic trade.

Evidence came to light that it was a racketeering plan, worked out between the Trade Federation and the Hutts, which put Naboo right between the culprits involved. Senator Sheev Palpatine was put into the limelight, despite all his protests, as he strove to find a way to defuse the situation with the Republic's interests on top.

"This is it. He's weaseled into the benevolent position again," Fulcrum said. "He'll play the factions off, make the Enemy seem overwhelming… and the Order will be drawn into a war they did not want."

Anakin muttered a frustrated curse, sighing softly. "But is he really going to be able to keep the Hutts from eventually betraying him? They're not exactly known for their loyalty. Can he have been working through enough agents to keep his place in this totally hidden?" 

"That will be for me to find," Areen said, hushing Micah with a look. "I have far more connections in Hutt space. I can return to the field, and see what I can learn."

"Then I will focus on the Banking Guilds once more, see if I can trace the credits that are moving through these layers of deception," Micah said, unhappy at her choice.

"It's a mired mess if it is anything like our own time," Fulcrum said, musing softly. "Both of you be careful. We can't afford to lose anyone as vital as either of you or tip our hands."

"No," Anakin agreed, "we can't. At least Lady Shmi can help there, Micah." 

"So she can," Micah agreed. "Alright, we know the supposed direction of events. Now to get proof before those children suffer for it!" 

Fulcrum closed her eyes, knowing that suffering was already their lot, until they could go and free them all. Shaak had brought back the child she had been, and the visions seemed to have bypassed the small girl, but she had been having them again, seeing the boys at different ages all over.

Areen noted the sadness on her, and just stood, gathering Micah by the shoulder to go and begin her preparations.

Anakin moved to his beloved padawan, wrapping his arm behind her back, under the rear lek, and leaned to rest his forehead against the curve of a montral. ~We will get to them, Snips. We will.~

~I just hope it is soon enough,~ she said, thinking of Wolffe who would lose half his batch, of Rex having to step up because the designated CC was killed in front of him, of all the boys that had lost pieces of their batches because of ruthless culling and training accidents.

~I know, Snips. I know,!~ Anakin agreed, still leaning into her. She'd told him more stories than he'd known, missing them, grieving them, hoping for them over the years. They had to get this right.

* * *

As the Hutts were played for fools by the machinations supposedly fueled from the Trade Federation, Micah and Areen did all they could to uncover the paths of credit and influence that were driving the conspiracy-laden furor in the Republic. Little by little, their long watch over Sithly machinations began to pay off, and Kit Fisto, Jedi with the closest ties to the Senate at this point, was able to point those he trusted onto paths exposing corruption and outright villainy.

Still, the galaxy teetered at the brink of war, with uprisings in multiple systems, some of which flared too quickly for Anakin to get their people on track to curb the fall out.

And then Micah found the actual trail to Serenno, to the Fallen Jedi there who had been funneling funds for the war-mongering, using laundering schemes that involved Offworld Corporation, long since identified as using Hutts to bring about profitable deals on Mid-Rim worlds that were less policed by the Republic. The company name meant nothing to Anakin… but its leader's name was Xanatos.

Palpatine might not have Asajj, and evidently did not have Maul, but Anakin knew that Xanatos could use the Force, even if the name meant nothing to anyone else.

"We have a trail to an ex-Jedi," Tahl said, considering her words carefully for Qui-Gon was here, and might just have a fondness still for the man that had been, before the Praxeum happened, intending to take him as student. "Do we confront there, and push it to open conflict, or do we go after the credit situation, try to interrupt that?"

[I don't think that will aid us,] Tyvokka said. [The ex-Jedi is more likely to give us valuable information.]

"Mmm... Xanatos, if it is the one I recall, has the Force as well," Anakin said, "but if he never went to the Temple, how much can he use it? I think Master Tyvokka is right, that we would be best served dealing with the ex-Jedi. He was dangerous and more than before." 

For a moment, his arm burned and he remembered not just that but the feel of flesh and bone giving under his saber and Dooku's own, holding crossed sabers at his throat, then the strange hollow sound of his head striking the decking. He shook it off, and tapped fingers against the table. 

Fulcrum reached and touched his hand, the cybernetic one, lightly. "I will take Saj with me, and go to the ex-Jedi," she said. "I think I might be best suited for 'discussing' it with him, determine if his cybernetic puppet is waiting in the wings.

"Qui-Gon? I want you and Obi-Wan, preferably with a third to back you up but hidden, find and detain, by whatever means, Jango Fett. We need him out of this picture before it gets too muddy. Be mindful of the fact he may have a young boy with him."

She could reason with Skirata, if he had found his way to Kamino, and had no reason to think he had not. Once they moved on the Sith, they had to move on Kamino shortly after.

Anakin brushed affection and satisfaction at his padawan, glad she had found something to keep Qui-Gon far away from Dooku with. "If that puppet is out there, you're not small enough to go under him any more, Snips. Maybe I should hunt that one." 

"Need to find out if he is, Skyguy, and then he is all yours this time," she promised breezily. "The montrals get sensitive if they get clipped after all."

That made the others laugh, as those montrals were impressive.

[I will go to my people,] Tyvokka said. [I have some I trust as much as I do you, and few pay attention to what is said or done in front of a Wookiee.]

"Idiots," Areen and Fulcrum said in the same breath, making Tyvokka laugh at their protectiveness toward his kind.

"If one of those is Chewbacca," Anakin said, thinking of the big, loyal, dangerous Wookiee his son had been so fond of, "he more than deserves it." 

Tyvokka looked at him shrewdly, then nodded.

"I'll attest to that," Fulcrum said fondly. That had been one hell of an adventure and tragedy alike, but Chewbacca had been a solid presence.

"We have our tasks. Let's begin," Areen said, rising from her chair to go to work.


	7. End of the Nightmare

_Some Jedi were easy to manipulate from the edges. He made them jump at shadows, and they cast their own. Others… were more directly pulled into orbit, and used to craft the future end of that entire Order. Free to push that end after murdering his Master, a politician simmered it all, to set into place the crisis he craved. The Republic would hail him as their hero, and the Order's death would go unremarked once the executioner's axe fell._

* * *

In fairness, Fulcrum had known the chance of negotiation was minimal. Without Qui-Gon to spark at Dooku in his younger years, the man had fallen prey to his hubris earlier. The path of power had eaten at him until he'd begun to listen to first Hego Damask, and then Sheev Palpatine with suggestions of how to change it all.

Galidraan had not happened at his hands; it had been a bloody war that stayed confined to its peoples. That did not stop him from falling into situations that he had not, in truth, kept enough patience for.

Now, as she faced the pose of a Makashi master with her own highly-modified jar'kai stance, she hoped her shadow stuck to the plan. Saj was given to more violent means than some of the students, an inherent draw on her as a daughter of Dathomir.

Then there was no time, as she caught the first blast of lightning, proving this man had very much already stepped onto the Sith path. She used her long blade to control it, remembering every piece of lore she had painstakingly learned. Catch the lightning, hold it on her blade and **pull**!

That, Dooku had not been prepared for, as he had to let off the lightning and focus on his 'saber work. Nor, once she had that advantage, did she let up enough long enough for him to concentrate on the lightning or a Force Choke. By the same measure, he was more than good enough to keep her from using the small Force Pushes she often managed in her own 'saber fighting.

He was unrepentantly drawing on the Dark Side to fuel his stamina, but the Light Side was there for her. She and Anakin had been careful to remain at the top of their ability with their chosen forms, adding to it as they acquired more lore from around the galaxy.

No one and nothing intruded, telling Fulcrum that Saj was doing as told, keeping the fight undisturbed. Now, Fulcrum just needed to find the right opening --

\-- wrong opening, she realized, as she took a 'saber cut along a shoulder, only turned aside because of the light armor she wore there. It wasn't beskar, but it was the best material she could find in its place!

What was it that Anakin credited her survival against Grievous to? Being small.

That was not an option now, not when she towered over many humans, and stood shoulder to shoulder with her Skyguy. No, but it was a guide.

She shifted her stance, flipping her long 'saber into the reverse grip, both blades now away from Dooku for a heartbeat. She brought her body down in stature, flexing both knees, curving back like a striking serpent, and aimed her parries and blows on a lower angle.

Again, she surprised the Count, his attitude as locked to proper form as ever, and she surged into the change, pushing the advantage while she had it. The Force was there, her eternal ally, and she gave herself as fully to it as she had once on Malachor, pushing Dooku's defense ever further and further away from true.

Sound at the door… and it distracted him, not her, allowing Fulcrum to come in under the duelist's lightsaber, a quick flip of the shoto over her hand, right into her opponent's torso. The shock on his face, the sound of his 'saber shutting off and falling from unfeeling hands— those registered, pulling her back from the pure need to protect the galaxy from this being.

She stumbled to a knee then, exhaustion trying to steal in around the edges of her fortitude, but Saj was there then.

"Come, Sister," Saj said in her softly sibilant voice, lending aid. "I have neutralized the guard force, but for how long, who knows?"

"Then, we go," Fulcrum managed, calling the lightsaber hilt to her after putting her own away. Master Yoda might wish it, after all, despite everything.

* * *

Qui-Gon, his right arm in a bacta-case and sling, slumped into a chair. "Obi-Wan is settling the youngling in with Lady Skywalker," he told the others, looking as weary as he could be. "Fett proved uncanny and ruthless in the fight. If we had not taken your advice about back up, and had Ti there, we would not have survived the encounter."

That was a heavy admission, but then, Anakin remembered how poised Fett had been when he and Padmé were captured on Geonosis so long ago. That had spoken of skill behind the confidence, a factor that had led to Vader employing Boba Fett regularly.

"We found out that the Intergalactic Banking Guilds have acquired a Kaleesh by name of Qymaen jai Sheelal, purportedly to be head of security," Tahl said, pointing to Ky to indicate who had aided her.

"Security," Ky scoffed, "that is being equipped with tanks and battle droids. He's a general, no matter what they say. What little I could learn from the Huk, who have had encroachments from the Kaleesh, he's without peer in battle."

The name, the species, almost didn't click over, until a random memory from Vader's earliest days came back, of seeing files being purged. That was Grievous… and not yet a cyborg.

"So they are moving forward, even without Dooku as their figurehead," Fulcrum said, leaning her head back into the rest that was designed for her on this chair. "There is no doubt they know the Order has something, but Saj wiped the security monitors of our presence. They can't have files on every single Jedi, so they may not know of our true numbers."

"Is it time to deal with the children on that world then?" Plo asked, xir tusks flexing with a need to protect the innocent.

"_Yes_," Anakin said, looking at Plo affectionately. "It is. Finally. Time to go deal with Kamino. The oldest vod'e should be old enough to help us take care of the younger ones, and there are enough of us to make things better there." 

"With Fett out of the picture, I am wagering Skirata will be the one with the most influence there," Fulcrum said. "He is a reasonable man, despite everything, based on all I ever heard. As my visions are in line with the ones I had the first time around, I honestly don't think there have been any changes there.

"The team that goes, they need to learn all they can about an emotional inhibition chip, without raising concern that we are looking. Discreet slicing may be needed."

Plo tipped xir head, then nodded. "I intended to volunteer, as I can use my telepathy to discern truth from fiction."

"Thank you, Plo," Anakin said, relieved -- and, alright, a little amused. So Plo might meet xir so-many sons much, much earlier. "I'm glad to hear it. I want to go, but I'm not... entirely certain it would be a good idea, even now. Who else?" 

"One of us has to, Skyguy," Fulcrum said, firmly. "So, unless you're going to go and bait this 'head of security' out, why don't you? I'm a little Force-spent right now from dealing with the Count."

"If he's still organic, not in that cyborg shell, he'll be much less dangerous," Anakin said thoughtfully, torn between that and getting to the vod'e and protecting them, "so... alright."

"I'll go, if you'll have me," Tahl said, "I may not be quite the slicer Micah is, but I'm better at languages."

"Bant has forbidden me to go off-world until this heals fully," Qui-Gon said. "And I have never been much use with children."

"Perhaps Bant herself will come, given what you have said of the world?" Plo mused. "I will ask her."

"That wouldn't be a bad idea at all," Anakin said, "as long as we bring plenty of the symbiotic gills. Which we should anyway, just in case. And I'm sorry we won't have you, Qui-Gon, but Bant's right." 

"That settles it. Plo's in charge, Skyguy for muscle, Bant for medical aid, and Tahl for security," Fulcrum said. "Get a feel for it, work out an agreement, and then bring back a working plan for protecting the incubators while moving the boys to a safer location."

"Convincing Skirata and his crew to follow along with that is going to be a challenge... but we're up to it," Anakin agreed, chuckling at Snips' arranging the universe to her satisfaction again. "Can-do." 

She met his eyes then. She wanted him there in case Skirata failed to be reasonable. The ones that had become Skirata's Boys would already be dangerous, after all.

"Keep the Force strong," Fulcrum said then, before standing up to go see how Boba Fett was coping. The child should be … barely walking? Walking and talking maybe? He aged normally, anyway, and Fulcrum was curious.

"She… is decisive," Qui said, before shaking his head and slowly rising. "I think I will take Bant's advice and go sleep."

Anakin laughed. "Were you just now figuring that out, Qui?"

* * *

Taking the nascent army from their creators was the step too far, breaking through to make the Sith aware that the threat he now faced was not the Order itself, but some splinter that he had not glimpsed in his visions.

They knew exactly when because Anakin blacked out completely on Kamino as they were finalizing the details of care for the youngest. 

Plo calmly had Tahl take their elder to the ship, waving it off as a Force event, no concern to the Kaminoans, and then xie carried on with finalizing their plans. Later, xie would learn what had happened.

On H'ratth, Fulcrum nearly blacked out from the effort of trying to hold the blinding, but she was not, in some warped fashion, connected so directly as Anakin had been once.

"He knows," she managed to tell Areen, now safely returned. "I wonder if this is what Windu feels like when a shatterpoint suddenly dissolves," she added, as Areen guided her to a chair.

"What do we do now?"

Fulcrum looked up at the elder woman, having come to rely on her brilliance… but she recognized when Areen was trying to make her open to the Force and find the next step. So she closed her eyes, and let herself touch the Force as fully as she dared now. There, the spidering creep of darkness swallowing the Light… and it was less full at this point than she thought it should be, for being nearly six years to the original start of the war.

"Take every bit of evidence, all that we have amassed from every system we investigated, and turn it loose in the open HoloNet for every system we can," Fulcrum said, opening her eyes. "Let us show the people, as well as those heroes that do exist for their peoples, how much manipulation has been happening."

"It could backfire, leaving the peoples too paranoid to think critically," Areen suggested.

"It might; but it will also stymy efforts on those worlds where honor will be impugned, worlds where logic holds sway. It's a stumbling block for him getting any unification to his path."

Areen smiled. "You should have been one of my Sentinels," she said, nodding to the plan.

"Perhaps, in a world where things went differently, I would have been. I did carry one yellow lightsaber then."

* * *

Ahsoka rested her head on Anakin's stomach, stretched outward from him as they both rested on a hill, looking up at the dying light of the day. 

"Bant is confident in the procedure she worked up for deactivating the chips," she said softly after a long silence. "Ky is quietly moving into more of the administration details of the Praxeum. Tahl has been avidly managing the Archives we've stolen this whole time. Micah is more than adept at handling the mission assignments. Qui-Gon has settled into guiding the teaching when he is not on missions. And Plo… well, xie is adept at interfacing between all aspects."

"Yeah," Anakin said, quietly agreeing both with what she was saying... and what he could half-hear her thinking. They had a wonderful set of earliest students who had many years yet to keep what they had started alive, a fantastic healer more than capable of taking care of the boys and freeing them, and they'd had amazing, rewarding lives. Wasn't it about time they did something, for good, about the man that had destroyed their original lives? "That's all true." 

"None of our tactics have pushed him to reveal his true nature," Ahsoka said then, watching the first star make its appearance on the far side of the sky. "I don't want him to slip away, to decide the time is wrong, and evade us all. We can't let him. But we've wrecked the usual game plan so much."

"Time to take the fight to him," Anakin agreed, hand running along the long curve of her shoulder and bicep. "As publicly as we can." 

He still remembered, vividly, his one-time master's terrifying power, the deaths of Kit and Saesee and Eeth and Mace, the times he'd been brought almost effortlessly to heel... what it had taken, finally, to kill him. 

//Luke...// He ached for a moment -- again -- for the son that might never be, and refocused himself. They might well die trying this, one or both of them, but... so what? It was worth it. 

"Exactly," she said, before reaching up to cover his hand with her own. "We have to. To make good on the promise of a better galaxy for all of them." She closed her eyes, not really looking forward to it, but knowing it had to be done. She ached, thinking of how strong a woman Saj was, and she wouldn't get to see that continue if they failed or died in their attempt.

"That was the whole point, right?" Anakin replied, tangling his fingers with hers. He hated the idea of leaving Mom behind -- she'd figured it out, one day, and he hadn't been able to lie to her -- and Kit, too, was probably his favorite of all the students they'd had, though there was Obi-Wan, too, and the thought of leaving him almost burned. But... he'd set a universe aflame out of manipulation and fear of loss once, he couldn't let that get in the way. 

"It really is, Skyguy. Snips-and-Skyguy to the rescue, one last time," she said, trying to make light of it. Saj already tended to keep an eye on her younger self, so that would help. And the boys would be tangled in their lives from this point forward, free of the awful future they'd been planned to bring about, all against any will they ever would have had.

That set him to laughing softly, even though he knew that was playing into her hands. "Yeah. One last time -- because if we survive this, I'm retiring," he told her, squeezing her fingers. 

"You and me both, Anakin," she said, smiling at the idea.

* * *

The foul mood radiating off of Saj must have been catching, or maybe Ky was just as upset by events as she was.

"Are we really supposed to just accept that the pair of them have gone off to hunt the Sith, the one they both told us beat all of us and founded an Empire?"

Kit padded into the room halfway through her words, while Qui-Gon lay stretched across a pile of mats in the gymnasium, finally healed. "I don't like it either," he said, "but they made their opinions clear..." 

"They also taught us to think for ourselves," Tahl said, taking Saj's side in this. "Is there nothing we can do that will help, and not break their plan?"

Kit sighed, fingers fidgeting with one tentacle uncertainly. "We might be able to get to Coruscant, I should still have working Temple clearance, but getting out of the Temple district, with what has to be going on there..." 

"I can solve that," Micah said, which caused Ky to look at him fully. "What? I can slice it, if we want to go help them."

"I do!" Saj declared firmly.

"So do I," Kit answered, head cocking slightly as he eyed Micah affectionately. 

Tahl nodded, too. "Yes," she agreed. 

"I suppose we are putting together a plan," Qui-Gon said in amusement.

"I am not certain this is wise," Plo said, raising a protest that made Saj whip around and glare at the Kel Dor. "Hear me out, young friend.

"Those two have lived far longer than either expected, let alone were meant to," xie said. "This place, the philosophy of bonds and listening to the whole Force, that is their legacy for all time, the one they asked us, specifically those of us in this room even, to nurture and keep in the light going forward. If we go, if we interfere with what they have chosen as their last gift to the galaxy, how well do you think it will go?"

Tahl chewed on her lip, and Kit sighed heavily, dropping his black on black eyes. "You... do have a point," he admitted unhappily, tentacles all flattening out. 

Saj was not happy with it, but she could see the point. Ahsoka had taught her that infringing on someone else's choice for themselves was too much like slavery. 

"Compromise," Qui-Gon said, looking at them all. "We arrange for a team to be on hand to extricate themselves in the aftermath."

Micah snorted amusement even as he nodded. "Who'd have thought you'd be the one to see a way through it," he said to his brother, "but yes, I think that could do." 

Plo let xir tusks flex in silent agreement, while Saj glared, but came to drop in Ky's space. The older man, a surrogate father she had never realized she wanted, put an arm around her shoulders and consoled her, knowing she had accepted that idea.

"So we shall do, then," Tahl said firmly.

* * *

Fulcrum, keeping herself hidden with her deepest shielding, having mastered and expanded the Teräs Käsi that she had been taught as a child, waited and watched over her Skyguy in worry. Both of them had avoided Coruscant mostly, and now…

...now that ancient Sith temple was thrumming loudly enough to be a constant staccato against their nerves. She wondered if it had been this loud in the build up to the war before, but dismissed the thought. Despite all the changes they had managed, the galaxy was a forbidding place at best, ripe for the Fall ahead, unless they managed to decapitate the conductor of it all.

They were in a deep tunnel, too close to the Sith shrine for either of them to have peace of mind, but both had agreed the easiest way to draw **him** to them would be to threaten the access to the shrine. The Temple side had been shored up decades before, when Anakin had remembered to warn the Council. This was the only way to it now, that he could remember, and they had placed timed detonators all up and down the tunnel.

When those went off, the tunnel would be flooded with an expanding foam that had been laced with cortosis dust, gathered during the previous Temple-side work. At the time, they had not known what they might use it for. Now, however, it would help seal off the shrine, cutting the connection down drastically.

"Will he come?" she asked again, despite Anakin being certain that Palpatine would not be able to resist investigating it himself.

"I'm sure he will," Anakin replied, brushing his hand against hers. "He's too invested in this place not to." 

"Then let's hope he can't bypass the recorders and transmitters," Ahsoka said, just before the timers hit zero, and the tunnel behind them began to fill with the substance. She knew it was working, felt the Sith shrine almost shriek at her before it was slowly muted in its strength. 

More would have to be done later, to seal it in more, and to not lose track of the fact it was there, but for now… all they needed it to do was lure the enemy to them.

Anakin made an amused noise at her muttering -- they'd worked their tails off putting those in, the smallest ones they could find. He wasn't going to miss all of them even if he did avoid some. "Whoa..." he murmured, "that's... really effective. More than I thought it could be, even." 

"Bless Areen and Micah for being smarter than we are," Ahsoka said, amused. The foam had been their brilliance at work, after all.

* * *

At first, it was only Coruscant that had the feed. Major HoloNet providers swiftly got it on repeating broadcast through the Core at least, before anyone could get a lid on the illicit feed.

It had begun with a hooded, cloaked humanoid battling a human man, or so it seemed, and a Togruta woman. The cloaked man was using a pair of red lightsabers, the Togruta woman had a pair of blazing white ones, and the human man was using one purple lightsaber alongside a blue one. 

While that hooded individual had been hidden, there had been effort to shut the feeds down. Then the hood slipped… or was thrown back by the Force… and the feeds had suddenly captured all attention.

The face of their Chancellor was well-known, and how could he be doing this when Force-Sensitives had to be registered if they entered the public sphere as politicians and leaders?!

More, and it was obvious to the most casual observer of Jedi antics, the two were being very hard-pressed to hold their ground, to protect one another and make any headway. Part of the feeds went down about the time Alderaan began re-broadcasting them, as the Chancellor caused a lightning storm to hit both of his opponents, but not all of the multi-angle view was lost.

CorSec even started trying to pinpoint where the broadcast originated, to lead an arrest, as the man with mis-matched lightsabers shifted to defend the woman, taking the brunt of the lightning. She gathered herself up and **moved** with blinding speed, a whirlwind of dangerous precision as she took one of the Chancellor's arms off above the elbow.

By that point, Corellia was involved in the transmissions, and even the Mid Rim got to see as the pair took the upper hand, pressing the battle despite the electrical attacks and the Chancellor wielding the now detached arm and lightsaber with the Force alone! They were giving no quarter, expecting none, and kept pushing, kept backing the man into a tighter place.

Then the woman missed a parry, and she fell back from the fight, stumbling, as the lightsaber had pierced her thigh. Something changed in such a visceral fashion in the unknown man that every person watching knew the end was near. 

Faster, tighter, the web of destruction was woven in purple and blue. Onward, the man in dark clothing moved, face writ with anger, with determination, even as the woman was gathering herself back up for the fight.

It was unneeded, as a whirling motion sent first the blue and then the purple blades through the Chancellor's defenses… and body. The mad cackling laughter on the man's lips died away in absolute shock, before the audience saw the body fall in three separate pieces.

She started to limp to him, and he turned, coming straight to her, getting her arm around his shoulders. Like that, and well before CorSec had homed in on them, the pair walked out of view, names unknown despite having revealed and ended the true Sith menace.


	8. To Go On

_The Force was known to have a Dark and a Light, yet few contemplated that one did not exist in the absence of the other. While the face of the Dark Side had been exposed and then extinguished, others would arise._

_Yet, when it did, the Light would be the stronger for having passed through trials of its own with history rewritten by two stubborn people who refused to give up._

* * *

Two ships set down on H'ratth, one piloted by Qui-Gon and Ky, the other by Plo and Micah. From that one, the pair of warriors were guided off, Tahl helping Anakin and Saj helping Fulcrum. While their injuries had been treated, both were exhausted by the effort.

That did not stop anyone from rushing over, with Shmi Skywalker picking up her step quickly to get to her time-tossed son, and Tyvokka not even hesitating to pick Fulcrum up and spin her around with a triumphant roar.

Anakin wrapped his arms around his mother, burying his face in her neck. "Hi, Mom," he murmured, so soft, as he held on tight. "We came home after all..." 

Fulcrum laughed, even as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to hold on. "Ooof! Master, ribs!" she protested, still holding on. 

Shmi held Anakin tight, even as her younger son came up with Nahdar to wait their turn. "You did. And it is done," she said quietly. "Now, you must let us take care of you."

[You can take it, cub!] Tyvokka said fiercely, but even he relented at Saj's growing irritation and worry. No one knew Fulcrum's health better than the pale one. He set Fulcrum down, then moved to get a paw on Anakin's hair, ruffling it. [You both did so well.]

Anakin leaned into that paw, still holding on to his mom. "Thank you, Master. And yes, Mom. We know." He turned his head towards the pack of their first students and Saj, smiling. "We sort of got that from the ridiculous crowd there." 

Finally, he let go of Mom and reached out for Ani and Nahdar. "Hey, you two. We're all right...." 

Both of the teens unabashedly walked into his arms for the group hug. Ani knew Anakin was a version of himself, one that had been through horrible, terrible things, and looked up to him as a big brother. Nahdar had fallen into their orbit because of a mutual love of ships and engines, as well as because he was one of Kit's favorite students.

"Knew you could do it," Nahdar said, but Ani was reaching to touch the biomechanical arm.

"Are we going to need to work on this? That was a lot of electricity," Ani said.

Fulcrum smiled brightly at that; it was so Skyguy, and seeing that in Ani made her happy. She looped her arm back around Saj's shoulders. "Come on, little one. Get me on inside; I'm hungry enough to eat a krayt."

"Ugh, krayt is disgusting," both Anakins said, and laughed, before Anakin looked down at Ani and nodded. "Yeah, the fine control is pretty completely shot. Why's that always the first thing to go?" 

"Because it's got the most delicate connections," Ani said with his face twisting up as if Anakin should know that. 

"Come on; we were working on a project in the Azure room anyway, so our tools are there," Nahdar said, taking the hem of Anakin's other sleeve to pull.

"It was a joke, little one," Anakin said affectionately, and then he let the kids pull him off towards the Azure room. "Thanks, both of you." 

"We'll get it fixed right up!" Ani said firmly.

Tyvokka watched them go, and moved to Shmi's side. [More lessons now, I think, milady. For those two to learn.]

"Oh?" Shmi asked, looking up at the Wookiee.

[How to live without a mission. I don't think either one knows that course.]

"No," Shmi agreed sadly, "I don't think they do. But we can all learn it a little more, together."

* * *

This time, it was Anakin with his head on Ahsoka's stomach, and they were watching the sunrise. She was idly petting his hair, thinking of the future that seemed brighter, stronger even.

"They're bringing the oldest boys here as soon as the new dormitories are finished," she told her partner. "It's going to be so strange to actually be among them at this age."

"Yeah," he agreed, "it will. They're going to all be so different, anyway, without the war to devote their whole existence to... but that's good." 

"It is." She then smiled, knowing she had kept a certain surprise from him. "And," she began with exaggerated lengthening of the word, "certain systems have already pledged to assist in sending teachers and liaisons to help the boys learn trades. Seems a certain soon to be not-a-queen is very intrigued by the project and will be one of the people coming to see how that project goes."

Padmé. Angel. 

Such a young woman, only barely into her twenties, proud and strong as she always was... what was going to happen, when his younger self saw her? Would that same knowing of 'hers, forever/mine, forever' strike him, or were they such different people that it would no longer be? He wondered. 

"Well. That... shouldn't surprise us." 

She brushed her fingers through his hair some more. "I'm going to watch that and try to ignore just how Little 'Soka handles the first time she runs into Rex." She didn't see the signs of that bond, the one that had tied her to all the boys so strongly in her younger self. The visions and nightmares had not been Soka's to have.

Would that relationship develop in time?

Anakin laughed, shaking his head a little -- but not enough to dislodge her hands -- as he considered that. "It'll be something," he said with a smile. "Both sets." 

"We have a whole new world ahead of us, Skyguy… and it's going to be a good one."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, one and all.


End file.
